Reflections
by Vintage Taylor
Summary: Something strange has happened in Hell during the reincarnation process that results in one bad entity living on and one good without a body. This is a normal coming-of-age story about a seven year old boy working side by side with the spirit of his vengeful grandfather to fight against the darkness within. A retelling of the Saiyaman-Buu saga through Goten's eyes.
1. The Story Begins

"Wait. Start over, from the very beginning."

Goten pinched the bridge of his nose. Of _course_ Trunks wasn't home. In his place was his dumb kid sister. Well, not so much a kid anymore but definitely young enough to count as one.

"Why do you have to be so dense, Bra!? How many times do I have to repeat myself!?"

The blue-haired girl had cowered in her seat at the kitchen table, fearful of the man now standing above her. This wasn't the Goten she was use to. Not even his face looked the same as it did just a second ago. His black brows were furrowed to create a dark demeanor, and his eyes were glowing red underneath the irises. Bra considered letting out a scream for her father to come out of his gravity room, but Goten went back to 'normal' before she could act.

"Bra..." he fell back on his chair and held his head in his hands. "I'm so sorry, Bra! This is what I was talking about... I've kept it to myself for so long and I just need to tell somebody. It's been going on for years."

The daughter of Vegeta and Bulma mimicked his pose, and resting her chin in her palms as her elbows rested on the table. She had overheard her brother telling her mom about Goten's 'outbursts' but had never experienced it until now.

"Okay. You can tell me. You just have to start from the very, very, very beginning! What the heck kind of story teller starts with the ending first!? That's lame!"

The young man across the table gave her a lazy smile. He closed the notebook that he tried showing her earlier. "You're right, I'm sorry. But you're going to have to listen to me this time, okay? This all started years before you were even born."

* * *

"Stop laughing, Goten! It isn't funny!"

The younger brother was rolling on the floor after having bouts of laughter. Chi-Chi had Gohan sat in a chair, cutting his hair for his first day of school with actual people his age. Prior to this trim, Gohan's hair had grown unevenly to his waist thanks to his father's haircut in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.

"There's just one stubborn bang that won't stand up!" Chi-Chi huffed and placed her hands on her hips. "I've tried and tried! I guess you can blame your father for that one."

Goten got playfully kicked by his brother as the hero walked past him. While he was checking himself out in the mirror to make sure his mother hadn't secretly given him a bowlcut again, Goten got up and took his place in the chair.

"Isn't it going to be the same as always, Mama?"

"Yes, sir!"

The boy kicked his legs back and forth as his mother trimmed some of his messy spikes. Unlike Gohan, he got his hair cut once a week so it wouldn't grow out. He was thoroughly convinced his hair was like this by nature, but Gohan told him in secret that his mama just wanted to be reminded of Dad. So, he never complained. Besides, it was awesome!

Much, much better than Trunks' lavender bowl for hair!

"All done, Goten! Go look in the mirror and make sure you like it!"

The youngest son of Goku slid off the high-top chair and scowled at his older brother blocking the mirror in the living room still. "Still, Gohan!? Your hair isn't going anywhere, silly!"

Gohan frowned as he repeatedly tried making his one bang stand up as straight as his other spikes, but each time it flopped right back down on his forehead. Sighing, he lifted up Goten so he could look in the highly placed mirror. "How do you like it, bro? Gosh... I can't believe how much you look like Dad. You remind me of him too, especially with that little laugh of yours!"

Goten blinked at his reflection, trying his hardest to imagine an older version of himself in place of the child he was looking at. He pouted, unable to see anything except himself. "It's good, Mama. Thank you!"

The brothers helped Chi-Chi sweep the black hair off the floor and put the mini barbershop away. Knowing how fast Gohan's hair grew, they would just need to whip it out again next week. The dinner plates had been licked clean and washed cleaner, the nightly news report watched, and the morning birds' songs had been replaced by the hooting of owls.

"Make sure you go wash your hair, bro!" Gohan called out before Goten could dive into bed. He had just gotten out of the shower with a towel wrapped around his neck and scrubbing the skin. Tired-eyed, the younger brother had crept out of bed to look up at his brother hanging out in the bathroom doorway.

"How come?"

"If you have hair in your ears, you'll be itchy and uncomfortable all night. Remember last time?"

Goten's squinted eyes turned wide. Last time he was itchy, he woke up in the middle of the night and beated on Gohan in fear of him being covered in bed begs. "I'll shower I'll shower I'll shower!"

The older Son boy laughed and moved out of the way for his brother who so desperately wanted in. The sound of the chuckling had disappeared from Goten's ears as soon as he shut the door and turned on the water.

Curious to look at his reflection again, Goten had to stand on the step stool to look at himself in the mirror. He frowned when he was unable to see anything.

"GOHAN! THE MIRROR IS COVERED IN CONSTIPATION!"

"...What?" came the voice from the other side of the door.

"IT'S ALL FOGGED UP!"

"Ohh. It's 'con-den-sation', Goten. Just turn on the vent!"

Goten mumbled under his breath. He hated the vent, it was much too noisy. Instead, he used his wrist that was still covered by his long-sleeved navy shirt to wipe enough of the fog away to reveal his face.

Although the image was a bit blurry, it was better than the stupid vent. He turned his face to the side, checking out his profile and grinning. He loved the way his spikes stood up on their own without using any of that sticky stuff.

With everything looking up to snuff, Goten was prepared to get off the stool and wash all the little hairs out so he wouldn't beat up Gohan tonight. Before he could do so, a strange mark appeared on his cheek that hadn't been there before.

Slowly, the child raised his hand and touched it. He couldn't feel anything, but he traced the shape he saw on the mirror. It was like a giant, flesh colored 'X'. After removing his hand, the image of the mark had disappeared.

Goten shrugged.

It must have been that constipation.

* * *

"Hmm, nope. I don't see anything, little guy."

"Check again!"

Gohan sighed, but humored his brother anyway. His first day of high school was tomorrow, and he couldn't sleep anyway. He turned the light of his desk lamp back on again and examined Goten's face thoroughly.

"Oh, man..."

"What!?'

Gohan backed away from his brother and held his hand over his mouth after finding a shocking discover. "Yup. I see something."

"Tell me, tell me!" Goten sat up straight and held his blanket close to his chest. He watched with careful eyes as his brother removed his hand from his mouth and placed it on his hips.

"Two eyes, a nose, lips-"

Gohan dodged the pillow that was thrown at him, and soon the brother engaged in an all out war until their mother told them to quiet down. Still laughing from the exchange, Gohan fell onto his side of the bed and stared up at the ceiling with a smile.

"Can I tell you a secret, Goten?"

The little brother flipped over so he was now looking at his brother. He was still holding the blanket close to him, hoping the mark wouldn't reappear somehow. "It's gotta be a good one!"

"I'm a little nervous about school tomorrow," the older son continued a nervous, awkward laugh and tried counting the number of tiles on the ceiling. "It's the first time I'll be around people my age. I hope they won't think I'm strange... I really don't want to stick out-"

With Goten already snoring, Gohan shook his head and gave his brother a gentle noogie as he reached over to turn off the light.

* * *

 _BANG!_

Goten flew out of bed as soon as he heard the noise, not even caring that he was dressed in his underwear only. On his feet, the child took on a protective stance as he eyed his surroundings. The room was pitch black thanks to the lack of street lights, and the poor boy couldn't see very well to find the lamp. A little bit of moonlight highlighted his brother's face, but no matter how hard Goten shook him, Gohan wouldn't wake up.

"Maybe Mama's up..."

That would make sense. That sound was an awful like the one she made when she dropped a bunch of pans.

Or perhaps it was that raccoon he kept feeding that Mama scolded him for.

Either way, if it were serious, Gohan would wake up in an instant.

Yawning once his heart rate returned to normal, Goten turned around to crawl back into bed but froze when he saw a shadowy figure moving towards him. It was advancing on him soundlessly, yet moved slowly. He could hear his heart beating in his ears like before, yet no scream could escape his lips. He couldn't move. He couldn't react.

The murky shape crept from the corner of his room where his bed was to the space he was standing in. It petrified him with the way it loomed over him. All that he could make out was a red headband that looked like it was bleeding.

 _It's just a nightmare, it's just a nightmare, it's just a nightmare..._

He closed his eyes tightly, knowing that as soon as the monster touched him he would wake up and be eating breakfast with Mama and Gohan. Just like the mark he saw in the mirror, this wasn't real.

He reopened his eyes, hoping he was right. Instead, the monster reached a dark and shadowy hand out and touched his forehead. Finally finding his voice, Goten released a piercing scream from the unbearable pain the strike had caused him.

The child could feel himself falling backwards, expecting to land on the carpet but instead continued falling, falling, falling. Numerous stars that were much bigger and brighter than the ones at home surrounded him, and he tried to focus his blurry vision on the shapes that could only be identified as small planets. Once his fall had ended, he was stuck floating.

No nightmare had taken him this far before.

Trying to gain his vision back, Goten blinked rapidly until he was staring into the eyes of a bloodied, scarred man holding charging ki in his palm. He let out a scream, noticing this man was wearing the same headband as the monster in his room. He tried punching the stranger, but his fist went through him like a ghost or hologram. Trembling, Goten looked into the eyes of the man to see he wasn't even looking at him, but something _behind_ him.

"FRIEZA!"

Instead of looking over his shoulder at the one named Frieza, Goten stared blankly at the man in front of him. He had the same haircut...

And that mark! That mark on his cheek!

What in the world was going on!?

"GOTEN! GOTEN! STOP!"

* * *

The child opened his eyes to find himself staring down at his bug-eyed brother. His small but powerful hands were wrapped around Gohan's neck, strangling him. Frightened by his action, Goten released his grip and backed away as quickly as he could.

Gohan coughed a couple of times and rubbed his sore neck, surprised at the strength his brother had while still stuck in a dream.

"What the heck was that all about!? You kept screaming 'Frieza, Freiza!' over and over!" Gohan coughed again, and then blinked twice as his cowarding brother at the edge of the bed. "Come to think of it, how do you even know Frieza?"

"Please don't tell Mama!" Goten cried out once his brother had turned on the lamp. He saw the outcome of the strangling on Gohan's neck; two red marks on either side. "I don't want her worrying!"

Gohan looked at the full length mirror behind their bedroom door and shook his head. "Well, if she accuses me of having a hickey, I'm going to have to tell her bro."

"NO!"

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" the teenager winked at his brother, trying to convince him that there was nothing to worry about. "I don't even know what a hickey is. I have a turtleneck I can wear to school until it goes away or I can get my hands on a Senzu."

Goten's lower lip began trembling, and he held his arms out to his big brother for an apology hug. Gohan picked him up off the bed and held him for a minute, trying to calm him down.

"Don't cry, Goten. It was just a nightmare. You can tell me all about it during breakfast, alright?"

"I hurt you! The monster hurt me! My head hurts!"

Gohan gave his sniffling brother a pat on the back. "I told you, little guy. Nobody is going to hurt you now. I'll stay awake with you if you want. I don't need the sleep."

Sniff, sniff. "Are you sure?"

"Positive."

Believing that his brother was truly okay, Goten crawled off of him and sat on the edge of the bed. Gohan joined him after pulling out a photo album from the closet, and showed him old pictures of their father in his younger days. The laughter was enough to convince Gohan was his little brother was going to be alright, but the throbbing of his neck wasn't enough to convince himself.

* * *

Goten sat there in silence, save for the sound of his fingers tapping against the table top. The fifteen year old across from him gaped, no longer able to hold her face in her hands and was leaning across the table to get a closer look at him.

He raised an eyebrow as she stretched out a petite hand, and then yelped when she gave him a firm pull on the tilted spikes protruding from his forehead.

"Ow! What the heck was that for!?"

She blinked her aqua eyes, the ones she shared with her mother. Bra had seen Goten's father enough times to know what his hair looked like. "Why don't you guys share the same style, anymore? Are you mad at him or something?"

Goten chuckled, and gently removed her hand away from his black spikes. Out of everything he told the girl so far, that's what she took from it. "No, not one bit. I love my dad. It's just the older I get, the more and more I'm his twin. If we had the same hairstyle, nobody would be able to tell us apart."

"Ah," Bra nodded, but her eyes remained unlit. Her upper body was still laying on the table while her bottom supported her against the backboard of the chair. She bit her lower lip as if she were reflecting on his words from earlier. "You said... that one guy? He had the same hair too, right?"

Goten gave his best friend's sister a tormented smile, one that was weak and itched to continue his story. "Yup. You got it. I used to look exactly like him, too." His grandfather's looks, memories, visions, anything associated with that scarred face Saiyan lingered forever in the back of his mind. He couldn't even look at the color red without seeing a blood-covered bandanna.

"What's wrong?" Bra asked sensitively, as if her voice being any louder would cause the man inches away from her to snap.

The daughter of Vegeta remained silent as Goten looked away from her large eyes to something outside the window. Even though she could only see his profile, his eyes were consuming. She had no choice but to turn her head slightly, her curiosity trying to see what he was seeing.

From where they sat in the kitchen, the only view the window gave them was of a large oak tree.

Bra pouted. There was nothing riveting about _that_.

She brought her gaze back to Goten, rather, his hand on the table that was now a fist. It was trembling while one of his eyes twitched.

"Goten?"

The sight of the oak tree was provoking those memories he tried keeping tucked way, way back in his mind. He had the very same one outside his house, where Chi-Chi and him would train while Gohan was at school. It was teasing him with images of a younger mother and son fighting, laughing, until he hurt her.

Forcibly, he brought his attention back to the young girl he mistakenly had to hang out with today. He heard her take a sharp intake of air when he couldn't hide condemned eyes.

"Sorry. This next part of my story is kinda hard to get through, but I can handle it. Ready?"

Bra, seeing the agony reflecting somewhere deep in his dark orbs, gave her best mesmeric grin. "Sure! But can I tell you little secret to cheer you up first!?"

Her words were dripping with pure innocence that Goten couldn't help but return the expression. "It's gotta be a good secret, though! I'm giving you my whole life story here!"

"Sometimes, once my brother's hair starts getting super long, Mama uses a bowl to cut his hair."

"I knew it!"

* * *

 **A/N:** Will be working alongside blue-hart throughout this story :-) that fabulous human being came up with the idea of Goten being Bardock's reincarnation and we just kinda went from there. I hope you're part of this journey, as well! Any ideas and advice and criticism are always, always welcome as I am a growing writer!


	2. Memories from the Past

Waking up that morning felt like death.

"Well," Gohan rubbed the back of his neck as he looked himself up and down their full length mirror. Combined, the brothers got about ten minutes of sleep. "At least these bags under my eyes compliment my outfit. I think the brand of this shade is, 'Insomnia'."

Sometimes never understanding a word his brother says, Goten shuddered as his feet touched the hardwood floors of their shared bedroom. "You look dead. And you have devil hair again."

The child was referring to the way the older hybrid's hair struck out in two different directions like horns. He mumbled under his breath as he ran a comb through the mess, hoping to look halfway decent before leaving to school. He chuckled exhaustively once he caught a glimpse of Goten's reflection.

"You're the one to talk! You look like a walking corpse!"

"Stop!"

The boys were about to have a friendly 'punchies' match until they heard the sound of their mother banging two pans against each other loudly. It was a mother's universal sign of breakfast being ready. Gohan grabbed Goten's shoulder tightly before the child tried squeezing through the door.

"Wait a minute, bro. How does my neck look?" the teenager stretched it out like an elastic man, moving it in all directions for the child to see. "Concealed?"

"Does concealed mean no red marks showing?"

"Yup!"

"Then yes!" Goten, despite his exhaustion, beamed up at his brother. The white turtleneck he was wearing perfectly hid the crime that happened last night, and his black vest with the obnoxious orange star sewed in added distraction just in case. "Thanks, Gohan. You're the best."

The older brother gave the younger one a wink, but lifted him up by the head to move him away from the door. A playfully angry Goten chased after him, not wanting that pig of a half Saiyan to scarf down all the pancakes.

They were able to make it through breakfast without their mother noticing the strangle mark on Gohan's neck, and that right there proved that it would be a good day after all. Before he was ready for it, Goten had to stand outside forlornly and wave goodbye to his best friend.

"Promise you'll be back!?"

From high up on the flying nimbus cloud, Gohan's laughter touched his ears. "Promise, little guy! Take care of Mom for me, alright?"

The child nodded with a pout on his face. He was unable to find any more words while his brother flew off. Then, out of the blue, he felt his mother touch the top of his small shoulder.

She was crying.

"Mama!" his frown only worsen seeing her like this. She told him once that whenever she cries, it begins as a feeling in her chest and a sadness in her brain. He didn't want her brain feeling sad! Not even one minute in, and Goten was already failing his brother!

She sniffled into her sleeve, but a smile soon revealed itself. This only confused Goten more.

"Are you crazy, Mama?"

"No, honey. I'm not crazy," she squeezed him. "I'm just happy. You and your brother are the best children a mother could ask for."

Goten sighed in relief. He still couldn't understand her tears, but at least now he was following Gohan's orders. He took her cold, soapy hand in his and carried her away from the doorway towards the giant oak tree in front of their small home. It was the child's absolutely favorite thing about Mount Paozu. Trunks and himself had climbed it more times than the boy could count (and he could count surprisingly high, all the way up to twelve!), and the carvings of his height each birthday were placed right next to his brother's.

"Did you still mean what you said the other day, Mama? About training while Gohan is at school?"

Chi-Chi sniffled for what hopefully would be the last time. The beauty of her tears revealed a vulnerability that was hardly ever seen. She was still getting dragged by her youngest son to that old, carved-up tree.

"Yes, sweetie. Are you ready?"

Goten released her hand immediately so he could crouch down with a combative look on his face. This wasn't the first time he and his mother trained together, but now it could be for hours on end with Gohan at school. Before, Chi-Chi had told him to keep it hush-hush since Gohan was stuck doing physics at Goten's age.

Like two scorpions in a bottle, Chi-Chi and Goten went at it. The mother was jabbing at the son with hands shaped like a beak of a crane, going at a rate so fast that it frightened the child. After getting hit, he tried saving himself from falling. The dewey summer grass shot out from under him, and a kick to his side caused him to roll to the oak tree. A foot came up from the turf and kicked him in the face.

"Why do you keep running away!? Get up and fight me!"

Goten knew his mother's attacks weren't hurting him at all, but for some reason he was feeling his blood boil each time she kicked him or spoke. This 'pain' was just an illusory sensation that his mind could shut down if he needed it to. She wasn't even giving him a chance to stand up. His pulse sped up and his breathing became shallow. His muscle grew tense as his temperature rose.

Why couldn't she have just stopped?

"Leave...me...alone..."

"Oh, don't be such a baby! Fight! Come on!"

She didn't even know what was going on inside his head. That monster from last kept a lingering image in his mind that he couldn't shake now, and her repetitive kicks and jabs while he forced himself to stay calm on the ground was starting to become too much.

In a moment of blind rage, Goten's scream grew at the same rate his power did. It felt like something rising from his chest and seeping out in all parts of his body. He had risen to his feet with his fists clenched tightly; golden hair standing upright to match his aura that blew the leaves of the old oak tree wildly.

Terrified, Chi-Chi became frozen in her place.

Now having the perfect opportunity to give her what she wanted, Goten's drawn back fist had connected with her jaw. The boy began trembling when it sounded like a bat hitting a baseball.

His mother laid face-down in the same position he had before, only she was spitting up red liquid. Still glowing, Goten ran as fast as he could to her side. His crying was both ferocious and noisy after realizing what he had just done to the person he loved the most. He blinked briny tears from green eyes, his thick lashes stuck together as if he'd been swimming. The child's small hands opened and closed, trying to find the solution to the pain he had just caused.

"Mama-"

When she supported her upper body from off the ground to look back at him, Goten wanted to cry even more. Her entire chin was painted with blood.

"You're...a monster!"

Chi-Chi ran away faster than Goten could reply, slamming the door of the house behind her while her noisy sobs echoed through the empty house.

* * *

After attempting over and over to get a word out of his mother only to be locked out of her room, the lonely seven year old kicked the old oak tree repeatedly while wiping his tears away furiously with the back of his navy sleeve.

Monsters weren't little boys like him. Monsters were like that shadowy creature that visited him last night.

Goten wasn't a monster...

Was he?

Groaning, the messy-haired hybrid punched the trunk with little strength. It still created a crater-like shape that made him pause and tilt his head, briefly forgetting about his troubles.

Why did it look so familiar?

Like the scar he had seen in the mirror, he struck out a thumb and traced the shape of dent he made.

 _You are me, and I am you. You are the light while I am the darkness. I am the first, but what you'll be with my power only time can tell..._

"HUH!?" Goten jumped around frantically, trying to uncover where that voice was coming from. Much like the crater in the tree, the voice was recognized. Starting to become very upset, the child stamped his foot on the ground twice and placed his hands on his hips.

"Alright! You better come out right now before I get mad!"

It felt as if something had hit his head, and the youngest son of Goku had collapsed to the grass that was previously used as a fighting ring. He writhed on the ground, feeling the pain of one hundred daggers sinking into his stomach. His eyes were watery, but through what the lids didn't cover he could see five people wearing strange armor all sitting in a crater together.

Still clutching his aching and shivering body, Goten blinked soundlessly as a female's voice touched his ears first.

"Bardock says he remembers everything."

The little boy groaned as he sat up, now trying to detect the direction of deep chuckling. A pony-tailed man was moving his broad shoulders up and down.

"Right. Don't make me laugh, Fasha. Bardock might remember every second of every battle, but he remembers nothing of his personal life. Allow me to demonstrate," the man looked over his shoulder at a pair propped-up knees. "Bardock, do you remember what day your son was born?"

"Nope. It was a long time ago."

Goten clutched his heart. It was the voice he had just heard before this weird dream started up! The very same one in his nightmare last night, too!

The woman in pink armor rolled her eyes. "It was not, you lazy bum. Yesterday? You've got enough time to go see the little tyke before our next mission."

Somehow expecting it, the one named Bardock finally sat just like everyone else and spat out the piece of grass he was chewing on. Goten backed away slightly, feeling like he was looking right at him. It was the scarred man from last night, alright. The frightened child brought his knees close to his chest and rocked back and forth, hoping this would end soon.

Goten didn't like this guy.

"Ooh, how nice. Have some father-son bonding," Bardock stared at Fasha with cold eyes, resembling the mugshots of criminals Goten and his mama watched on late night news. "What's the point? They're just going to send him off anyway."

The crew went on to talk loudly about the planet they were on, but Goten was too focused on the one named Bardock. Looking at him was like looking at a grown-up mirror. His body was bigger and his skin was darker, but the biggest difference were the eyes. Whereas Goten saw light in his own, this man's were pure black as if he had no other thought or feeling inside of him.

The rubble behind him suddenly exploded, causing Goten to scream and the crew to jump to their feet. The child crawled away as far as his little legs would let him, but the blue fish-like creature didn't seem to be interested in him at all. He was running towards Bardock at full speed, tricking the green-armored warrior by striking him in the neck.

Before the tallest member of the crew killed the alien, Goten was staring at the crater on the tree. He was alone once again, save the wind chimes hanging from the roof of his home.

* * *

"Boy, life sure is hard when you're a little monster. Huh, Chobi?"

The baby pterodactyl squawked in response. The two were in Chobi's nest, sprawled out on their backs and watching the clouds. Chobi really wasn't much of a talker, but he understood what the boy said.

At least that's what Goten figured.

"Has anyone ever told you your bed is super comfy!?"

" _Squawwwk_!"

"I know, right!?"

The two odd friends continued to view the clouds until an abnormally yellow (and flying) one appeared. Thanking Earth's guardian loudly for having this crappy day finally start to turn around, Goten jumped up and down on the nest and waved his hands frantically in large circles. Chobi tried mimicking him, but his legs were too chubby.

"GOOOOHAN! GOOOOHAN!"

The boy was finally looking like his normal self, wreathed in smiles. His big brother looked exhausted from the long day, but couldn't fight a grin as he approached the happy child.

"Hey, bro! How was your first day without me around!?"

"Uhm," Goten rocked on his heels after giving his brother a high-five. "You first!"

Gohan shifted his eyes. How was he suppose to explain to his brother that a pair of blue eyes haunted him all day? That he was harassed and followed by the daughter of the world's champion?

"Uh... I think I made the baseball team!"

"Awesome!" Desperate to keep all conversation away from what happened during his day, Goten hopped onto the flying Nimbus and waved goodbye to Chobi as the brothers headed back home. "What else happened!?"

"Well, actually, I'm having a bit of trouble Goten."

The boy looked at the back of his brother's neck and pulled a face. "What do you mean!? Are you okay?"

Loving the concern in his voice, Gohan looked over his shoulder and grinned. "Don't be so worried, little guy. I just have to go to Capsule Corporations tomorrow and ask Bulma about making me some kind of disguise so I won't make a spectacle out of myself. If I leave you nimbus tomorrow, did you wanna meet me there?"

"Do I!?" the kid beamed. Anything was better than being alone with that strange voice, these vivid dreams, and hurting his mother. "Is that even a question!?"

As the brothers approached their home, Gohan sniffed the air and nearly cried at the scent of ramen. Plenty of that and plenty of sleep would make up for this insane day of lying and escaping from that crazy girl. How he ended up having every single class with her was just unfair, cruel, and unusual.

Behind the starving teenager, Goten fiddled his thumbs together. Mama hadn't come out of her room all day until now, and the child was afraid of what he'd see on her face, afraid of what she would say after ignoring for hours.

His heart thumped a little when the black bun wearing housewife and former fighter was standing on the porch. She was waving happily, calling out that dinner was finally ready. Even after hopping off nimbus, he still couldn't look her in the eyes.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Gohan interrupted Chi-Chi before she could ask him about his school day. Goten gulped while looking down at his navy boots, occasionally scuffling them and waiting to hear the results. "How'd you get that bruise on your face!?"

"Oh, I dropped a bar of soap in the shower this morning and slipped. Goten took good care of me, though. Nothing to worry about!"

"Well, it's nothing a Senzu can't fix. I'll pick you one up on the way to Bulma's tomorrow."

Just like that, the two went inside. Goten still hadn't look at his mommy's face, but was staring at her pant legs in disbelief. Not only had she said the lie to easily, she even put in a good word for him.

The boy focused his gaze solely on his food as his mother and brother discussed high school problems. He kicked his legs back and forth, being too short for the rather high chair.

"Ahem."

Nervously, Goten looked up with a mouthful of rice to see his bruised mother looking at him. The black and blue wasn't as bad as he thought it was going to be, just slight discoloration along her cheek bone. Gohan was too busy wolfing down his dinner after a long, hard day of high school that he didn't notice she put a finger to her lips to seal a secret.

Then, she outstretched her hand and ruffled Goten's hair lovingly.

Instead of allowing her to continue the affectionate act, Goten decided to do one better. He hopped off his chair and wrapped his little arms around her neck as gently as possible, dragging her down slightly.

"I'm sorry, Mama."

"I love you, my little monster."

XX

* * *

Bra flickered her misty eyes away from Goten to look at the tree outside the window, finally understanding why he was zoning out earlier. Carefully, she pressed down on the top of his hand with the palm of hers.

"Daddy punched Trunks in the face one time, so don't worry about it."

Goten observed her with lidded eyes. "That makes me feel _so_ much better."

The daughter of Vegeta delicately removed her hand and placed it on her lap. Her naturally long lashes blinked away crystal beads, although some escaped and trickled down her neck to her chest only to melt into the cloth of her red shirt. Goten was really good at telling stories, but the poor girl needed a break before her heart exploded.

"Let's go get some food!"

The young man arched a jet black eyebrow. "You've got groceries and cooks for days. I don't think you need to go on a food run." Not to mention today seemed to be the coldest day in history. Goten managed to escape the house before his aging mother put thirty coats on him, and he was too stubborn to admit she was right about the weather.

"Awh, come on! You can wear one of Trunks' jackets! He won't care!" the girl received multiple blinks on the other end of the table for reading his mind. "I just really want a muffin and nobody makes better muffins than West City Bakery!"

The innocence of her beaming blues was enough to make Goten sigh in defeat. He stayed locked in her gaze for a moment before going to Trunks' room. "What if a gorgeous girl wants to ask for my number but they see me with a child?"

Bra huffed so strongly that her choppy bangs blew upwards. One of them became stuck to her headband, and Goten had to stifle in his laughter at the site of her having a protruding horn.

"I'm a _teenager,_ not a child! No sane girl would ask for your number, anyway!"

When they both removed themselves from the table, Goten used his large hand to gesture at her red crop top and matching mini skirt. "If you're making me wear a coat, you better change too! I don't want to explain to your dad that his daughter died from pneumonia under my care."

The young lady rolled her eyes, but went in the direction of her room to put on weather-appropriate clothes. Knowing exactly where Trunks' room was after all those sleepovers as children, Goten walked in as if he owned the place.

His hand grazed the wooden handle of his best friend's closet door and rubbed his fingers around it. He swallowed as his throat suddenly felt inflamed. As much as he had good memories of being here, the reasons that brought him here so many nights weren't good at all.

Shaking his head, Goten slid the door to the side and grabbed the first coat he saw. Thanks to his mother's money, Trunks was always wearing the clothing those male models' wore in the magazines at the grocery store. Goten chuckled quietly as he struggled to fasten all the buttons on the extremely long black parka.

"This thing probably costs more than Gohan's tuition!"

"Are you ready- Oooh!" Bra smiled widely when she poked her head in the room. Goten looked at her as he did the last button to see she was wearing jeans and a black coat that matched his almost perfectly. "We're twins!"

Blushing, Goten ran his hands through the remaining outerwear hurriedly. "There's gotta be something else in here..."

"Let's go already! I want my muffin!"

Out of everything she was capable of grabbing, Bra opted with his thumb. She pulled him out of the house, down the walkway, and towards West City's downtown bakery. Goten was too much of a man to admit it kinda, sorta hurt.

* * *

"Muffin?"

"No thanks, Mrs. Brief!" Goten and the blonde woman exchanged sweet smiles before she scurried herself away. Trunks' grandma always reminded him of a mouse for some reason. She moved so quietly and appeared out of nowhere.

The little boy sat crossed legged on the large white sofa, waiting patiently for Trunks to get out of the gravity room. Bulma was taking a drag of the white stick in her hand, blowing out smoke away from Gohan's face.

"So, any disguise will do?"

"Yeah!" the teenager clasped his hands together in hopes it was possible. "Anything is fine, it just needs to cover my body entirely. I almost ruined everything when that girl caught me as a Super Saiyan. Minutes later, the whole school was buzzing about the 'Golden Fighter'! Can you believe that?"

Bulma took another puff before crushing it in the ash tray on the coffee table. She drew her eyebrows together and smirked. "A girl, huh? What girl?"

Goten looked at his brother who was turning apple-cheeked in disgust. How could his hero be caught by a girl!? All they had were cooties!

"Uhm... Videl Satan?"

The scientist's jaw went slack. If her cigarette wasn't dying in the bowl beneath her, she would have most certainly dropped it on the carpet. "Don't tell me she's that goon Mr. Satan's daughter!?"

While the adults went on and on about that loud man who appeared on TV occasionally, Goten slid off the couch and decided to wait for Trunks outside the gravity room. Maybe he would catch a glimpse of his best friend's training in action!

As soon as he turned the corner, he bumped right into a boy slightly taller than himself. Their foreheads collided with each other at such a force that they landed on their butts and began laughing as soon as they saw the culprit.

"Goten! What are you doing here!?" Trunks had a towel wrapped around his neck, showing that he had just gotten out of the shower. "Did you steal your mom's car or something?"

"Nope!" the boy flashed him a peace sign. "I came on Nimbus! It's only the bestest, most fastest cloud in the whole world!"

Trunks rolled his eyes. He hated that thing because he always fell through it. "Yeah, yeah. Did you come to play!?"

Goten accepted the hand being offered to him. With the boys on their feet now, they walked down the hallway going nowhere in particular. "Sure! Why not!? Gohan can play too, right!? I don't know how long it will take for his costume to be made!"

"Costume?" the other boy raised a lavender eyebrow. "Like, for Halloween?"

"I dunno!"

Trunks shrugged. "If you dunno, I dunno. Let's go to my room and get some toys!"

The two raced to the room on the upper level of Capsule Corps, ignoring Bulma's plea to stop running. Goten slid inside at the last minute and frantically flipped the light switch on and off while Trunks kept flicking the back of his head for cheating.

"Why isn't it working!?"

"The bulb burned out, dummy!"

"Why don't you get another one!?" Goten bit his lower lip and looked around the darkened room. Trunks had no windows, so the bright sunlight never kissed the furniture like it did in Goten's room. He couldn't even see where the bed was. "You guys gotta have like a million of them!"

Always a little too laid back, Trunks slapped his friend on the back and gestured to a candle on his desk. "Don't worry! I haven't asked for one because I've got the greatest toy in the world!"

"A candle...?"

"Matches!" the son of Vegeta whipped the greatest toy in the world out of the back pocket of his pants. Goten's eyes lit up just like the match did when Trunks stroked it against the side of the small box. They watched the flame dance back and forth for a while until Trunks handed it over to Goten.

"...What do I do with it?"

"Light the candle, moron!"

"Oh!"

Goten marched slowly to where the candle was resting on the desk. A chill suddenly ran down his spine, nearly causing him to drop the flames. Something was catching his attention in the corner of his eye. Reluctantly, he looked to his shadow on the wall that was dancing from the fire. The shadow removed itself from the wall and walked towards him with an outstretched hand.

 _I am your past._

"LEAVE ME ALONE!"

The child fell backwards and dropped the match on his way down, emblazoning the entire room until he was trapped in a ball of fire. An excruciating scream pierced his ears, and Goten let out one of his own when he saw Bardock, the man from his dreams, burning alive.

"GOTEN! GOTEN! KNOCK IT OFF!"

Trunks had emerged from the fire and slapped him across the face. The impact of the hit was enough to kill the fire. With eyes shifting everywhere, Goten was finally able to see the candle was lit and the match was blown out.

"You could've burned my whole room down, ya dummy!" Trunks held his best friend by the shoulders and shook him out of concern. He still looked a little dazed. "If you're afraid of fire, you could have told me. You're just lucky I have ultra super fast speed and caught that match!"

"I'm scared, Trunks."

The lavender haired boy blinked. He had never seen his best friend cry before, but the child was letting those crystal beads loose. Awkwardly, Trunks let go of the sobbing child and shut his door so his father or Gohan wouldn't be ashamed.

"Why are you scared? It's just fire-"

"Of Bardock!" he wailed. "He won't leave me alone!"

Trunks rubbed the back of his neck. There wasn't anyone else in the room, as far as he knew. Sighing, the Brief boy slid down to Goten's level and began patting his back.

"H-Hey, don't cry. We'll find...Bardock? And beat him up."

Sniff. "You promise?"

"That's what friends are for, right?"

* * *

Bra put two fingers to her lips and mimicked blowing a cigarette. The cold weather revealed what she believed her breath to look like, and she giggled while Goten shook his head.

"Did Mama look something like that when she smoked?"

With his hands tucked deep into the pockets black parka, the young man shrugged. "I guess you could say that. Hey, she doesn't smoke anymore, right?"

Bra curled her lips and scrunched her nose up at the man who towered above her short stature. Goten could see fluffy specs of fallen snow resting in her blue locks. "I told her I didn't like the smell."

The girl continued to do her pretend smoking until her companion forcefully grabbed her by the shoulders. She stomped hard on his foot while throwing her head back to glare at him.

"What the heck-"

His hands moved from her shoulders to her face, and she shuddered at the coldness of his flesh on her cheeks. Unsure of whether or not he was going to have an outburst again, she clenched her fists tightly in preparation for a fight.

"Relax. I just want you to look at something."

He moved her face around, and her eyes took a panoramic shot of an icy street. Pedestrians dressed in their best winter clothing were walking up and down the sidewalk; nothing unusual. Cars occasionally passed by.

"What exactly am I looking for?"

"When we leave the bakery, a motorist is going to hydroplane and crash into a red car. That red car is going to hit a fire hydrant at an incredible rate, sending it flying in your direction. You will be too stunned by my prediction coming true that you don't move out of the way. I catch it right before it hits you, but because I don't like you, the water where the hydrant once was will soak you."

Bra snorted while removing his hands away from her face. She stuck her nose up in the air while grabbing the handle of the bakery that was behind them. "Trunks says stupid stuff like that all the time. Can we just go in already?"

Goten shrugged. "At least I tried."

The bluenette glared at his smirking face as he passed by, and she laughed mockingly when he tripped on her foot. She held the door open for an elderly couple that came in and took a good whiff of the family-owned store once she was sure nobody else was coming in.

"Ahh, I love this place so much!"

Standing behind the elderly couple that kept giving them winks, Goten deadpanned and looked at the table nearest the long line of people wanting their fresh baked goods. A stunning dark haired woman wearing yellow ear muffs to protect her ears against the cold smiled sweetly at him, revealing pearly white teeth that shone brighter against red lips.

Goten raised his hand a little to wave at her, but Bra elbowed him in the gut.

"I wouldn't do it, Goten. She's a gold digger. She only wants your money."

Rubbing the sore spot, Goten scrunched his face together to look at the girl. "How in the _hell_ would she know I have money? I don't even have money! I only have ten dollars in my wallet!"

"You're wearing a designer coat," Bra winked and caused the man's cheeks to burn. "Plus you're hanging with the heiress of Capsule Corporations. What's that say about you?"

Looking through his peripherals at the beautiful stranger with perfect features, Goten considered ripping the coat right off his body to prove the obnoxious kid sister wrong. "Well, maybe she'll love me more when she realizes I'm a humble farmer boy from the mountains."

"You don't even farm."

"Shut up!"

"Uhm, excuse me?" a woman laughed from behind the cash register. The two were so busy in their bickering they hadn't noticed they've been next in line for the last five minutes. Turning red, Bra grabbed Goten by the elbow and brought him close to the food on display.

"Ooh!" she pointed at a certain West City Bakery speciality. "A pink muffin! Those are my absolute favorites! I bet you've never seen a pink muffin before! Do you want one!? That's what I'm gonna get!"

Her age was beginning to show, and it made Goten smile. It was too bad him and that color didn't have a good relationship with each other.

"I don't like pink very much."

They were lucky to have a patient cashier. Bra looked up at him in shock and punched his chest. "What, too girly for you!? Or is this part of your story?"

"We'll get there, we'll get there," Goten smiled down at her and then at the cashier. "We'll take that one and a blueberry, please."

Bra gasped as Goten took out his wallet. "Wait, you're really going to pay!?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"That'll be ten dollars, sir!"

"Dammit!" he gave the cashier the remainder of his cash and glared down at the simpering Bra, who seemed very pleased with herself. "This better be the best muffin I've ever had!"

After seeing his emptied wallet from a distance, the beautiful stranger had turned her attention to another man. Goten could hear the sound of his heart breaking while Bra's smug look grew and grew.

"You know, I-"

 _CRASH!_

The moment they stepped back into the wintry weather, a man was spinning out of control until he crashed into the side of a woman in a red vehicle. She hit the fire hydrant feet away from Bra and Goten harshly, sending it flying towards the stunned-into-silence teenager. Goten caught the flying yellow object with one hand before it smacked her in the face while the motorists got out of their vehicles to scream at one another.

When she dropped her expensive muffin to the ground, Goten sighed loudly and placed the hydrant on the snowy sidewalk.

"You know, I spent my last penny on that stupid thing."

Her cold hands reached up to press against his chest. Her bewildered eyes looked like the deep blue ocean during a storm. In the background, the ambulance was making sure the victims of the car crash were alright.

"We are going right back in there. You _need_ to tell me everything."

Deciding to be nice, Goten yanked her away from the waterfall heading their way and escorted her back to the bakery.


	3. Spirit of the Saiyan Warrior

Trunks and Goten exchanged looks with one another while brother of the latter created different and strange poses in front of a full length mirror. Bulma, proud of her design, clapped her hands while squealing. Her son had been begging for a superhero costume of his own this whole time, but he was beginning to change his mind after seeing it on display.

"So?" Gohan laughed while twisting his body in front of the boys. "What do you think?"

The lavender-haired child crossed his arms over the chest of his green gi and turned up his nose. "It's..."

Goten's hands were twitching in front of him while his eyes twinkled. "It's..."

"Horrifying!"

"Awesome!"

Gohan frowned at Trunks' response, but then shrugged it off. Underneath the helmet he donned, he smirked and held his head up high. "Eh, you're just not into fashion. This is the coolest thing I've ever worn!"

Trunks blinked while a small sweatdrop lingered on his forehead. "No... I don't think that's it..."

"Gosh," Bulma interrupted the moment after looking out the window. The sky was painted an orange-red, creating a beautiful sunset and signaling it was time for the Son boys to start heading home. "It's getting kinda late. I'm sure your mother is worried sick about you two!"

Goten shyly pushed Trunks forward, not wanting to ask the question himself. The son of Vegeta rolled his eyes at the cowardliness of his best friend and tapped his mom's rib cage until she looked down at him. He made sure Super Dork was looking at him, too.

"Can Goten spend the night tonight? We already called his mom and she said it was cool!"

"Yeah," the mini Goten blushed. He was holding his wrist and smiling nervously at the genius woman before him. He really liked Trunks' mom, it's just he had heard some horror stories about the type of chores she's made Trunks do whenever he did something bad. "Is it...cool with you?"

Bulma winked at the children and turned her attention to Gohan, who had already pressed his watch to return to his school clothes.

"I have a suspicion about these two, so when you go home can you be sure to ask Chi-Chi if it was alright?"

Goten glared at Trunks, whose jaw had dropped. They were truthfully telling the truth, truthfully! It was just his friend's fault for always being a troublemaker, but it also didn't help the messy-haired boy always looked so guilty about something.

Gohan waved her off. "Don't worry about it, Bulma! I heard them talk to her."

Trunks stuck his tongue out at his mother as an 'I-told-you-so' while Goten hugged his brother's leg tightly goodbye.

"I promise I'll take good care of Nimbus and I'll be home first thing in the morning!" the seven year old smiled gratefully up at his hero, the most coolest biggest brother in the entire universe. "You gotta tell me how many times you saved the day in your costume!"

Gohan grinned and gave Goten a noogie, ruffling up his already messy hair so that it really didn't make a difference. "For sure, little bro. Take care of yourself and please for the love of Dende, don't get into any trouble!"

Soon after their goodbyes, the Capsule Corporation robotic chefs made large dinner for the boys. They were soon joined by Vegeta, who had no words to say for a long time. Trunks kept kicking Goten under the table, reminding him to ask his father about the situation. The son of Goku dropped his fork in agony while taking a look at the always angry looking dad at the head of the table.

"Uhm... Uncle Vegeta?"

The prince glared at him in such a way that Goten felt like it wasn't met for him. He obviously didn't do anything wrong, so the child continued.

"Do you... Do you know who Bardock is? Since you're so old-"

Goten winced when Trunks kicked him again. The seven year old decided to zip his lips while waiting for Vegeta to respond. The flame haired Saiyan took two obnoxious bites of the grilled meat in his hands. His feasting was the only time the boys ever saw him with his gloves off.

"It's a Saiyan name," although the prince spoke with a full mouth, they could tell his voice was blunt. "One I don't recognize."

Trunks had told Goten repeatedly that his father _never_ lied, and the prince's facial expression and body language showed that was the truth. The poor boy dropped his head and continued to eat his food at a much slower rate. There was no use in trying to press the man of few words after he spoke few words.

After putting their cleaned dishes away, the boys put on their pajamas and raced to the bedroom again. This time, Trunks was declared the winner. Knowing that his best friend didn't like the greatest toy in the world, Trunks changed the light bulb under his fan and gave the matches a rest. The two shared Trunks' large bed and turned on the TV for background noise.

Sitting up straight with their backs pressed against the headboard, Goten looked over at Trunks once a commercial about dish soap came on.

"I should get Mama that dish soap!"

The child fumed when he saw his best friend's head not able to hold itself up anymore. He gave him a quick jab on the shoulder, causing the son of Vegeta to jump. He gave Goten a stronger punch back.

"What's your problem!?"

"My problem!?" the seven year old pouted while rubbing his now sore arm. "You're the one falling asleep when you promised you'd stay up and help me fight Bardock!"

Trunks stretched his arms and yawned lazily. He smacked his lips a couple of times while looking emptily at the racing cartoon on TV. "Sorry, dude. Dad worked me too hard in the gravity room today. If I fall asleep, you already know what to do! Just wake me up and I'll be prepared! You know me!"

Goten squinted his eyes at his friend for minute, but the throbbing pain on his arm reminded him that Trunks can wake up right away. "Alriiiight," he sighed. "I'll stay up by myself, then."

Trunks was already snoring before Goten closed his mouth. The son of Goku shook his head and adjusted himself so he could watch the TV screen comfortably. He had to control his laughter by covering his mouth with his hands so he wouldn't wake up the whole house. It wasn't his fault; that talking dog was SO funny!

"This whole situation is obscene."

Goten's hair stood up on his arms when that voice from before had entered his ears. He lowered the volume of the TV on the remote with a shaky finger and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

"H-Hello? I know that was you Bardock... show yourself!"

The only light in Trunks' room was coming from the television screen. The boy used it as his guidance while crawling down to the foot of the bed. His small hands held on tightly to the edge and lowered his upper body to the hardwood floor. His eyes scanned under the mattress for any sign of the monster, but all he could see was the trash Trunks had hidden from Bulma.

As he brought himself back up, he was greeted by green-tipped boots. Those green-tipped boots belonged to legs dressed in black pants, and those black pants belonged to a torso that was protected by green armor. Goten gulped, not wanting to look any further up.

He closed his eyes instead.

"If you leave now," he breathed out. "Trunks and me won't kill you. But you gotta leave now, okay?"

A dark chuckle caused Goten to open one eye. Bardock was smirking down at him with his arms crossed over his chest, mocking Vegeta's signature pose. Goten opened his other eye to get a good view of the man's scar and red headband. The child's breath was easy, doing his best not to freak out or wake up Trunks unless it was necessary.

"Are you finally ready to listen to me, brat?"

Goten blinked his large eyes. He was still gripping to the edge of the bed and looking up at Bardock. All he could do was nod, and then watched as the armor-wearing man bent down so the two were even in height.

"How old are you?"

"Huh?"

Bardock narrowed his eyes. "Your _age_ , stupid. Two? Three?"

"Hey! I'm seven, jerk!" Goten fumed and stood up on the bed. He considered kicking the meanie monster in his face and sending him back to where he came from, but the poor child needed answers to his burning questions. "Why do you keep bullying me and following me!? That's not very nice!"

Raising back onto his feet since the child was standing now, Bardock sighed heavily and rubbed his temples that were covered by his blood soaked headband. "I don't know how much a seven year old knows, so bear with me. Do you understand reincarnation?"

"Nope!"

The first of many groans from the mysterious monster was heard. It wasn't until he placed his large hands on Goten's small shoulders that he noticed Bardock's halo above his head when he couldn't feel the touch.

 _Bardock is dead!_

"Listen to me, spawn. I'm going to tell you a little story and if I have to repeat myself, you're going to regret it."

The child gulped but nodded his head in agreement a little too rapidly that it made him dizzy.

"There's this red bastard that judges what happens to you after you die and what do you know, he decided to send me to Hell and have my soul washed clean so a good-hearted person would be born and eventually grow into the red bastard wished I was. That person, is you."

Goten held on as carefully as he could to every word until his mouth turned into a little 'O'. He pointed a finger to his chest and then at Bardock. "You're me from the future?"

Bardock cringed as if Goten's words hurt him, but the Saiyan stopped himself. "Close. I'm you from the past."

"Whoa..."

"Anyway, something went wrong with the process that your family should really sue the red bastard for. There's still no explanation as to why this happened, but my soul was split into two entities. One evil, one good. Does it shock you that I'm the good one?"

Goten began sucking his thumb and looked up so innocently at the storyteller. Some of the words he was saying were too big for the poor child to understand, but he was picking up on a few.

"What happened to the evil one?"

The child's lips began to quiver when Bardock's finger pointed directly at him. He looked at his own hands that hurt his mama earlier and felt tears brimming. His head began to shake wildly.

"I-I can't be evil! You're evil! You're a monster!"

As uncaring as his demeanor was, Bardock took a second to search the child's pleading eyes. The glow from the flat screen was highlighting Goten's pained expression, one that begged for Bardock's words to be faulty. When he started sniffling, the Saiyan ran a hand through his own hair and sighed for nth time.

"Look, kid. It doesn't mean you'll end up being evil it just means I have to keep an eye on you for awhile per request of the red bastard. I have to stay around long enough until you do something heroic. That assures us both we'll keep our bodies in Other World and your guardian won't have to worry about you killing everyone here."

Goten wiped his snot away with the long sleeve of his pajama top. It was white with green dinosaurs on it, which Bardock tried hard to ignore. The child still had no idea what their relationship was, but the Saiyan himself was trying not to believe it.

Especially after seeing what his older grandson was wearing.

"B-Bardock?"

"Hn?"

The poor boy sniffed again. "Why am I the only one that can see you? Gohan and Trunks were in the same room with me and looked at me like I was crazy!"

"I didn't want to complicate things further, kid. You need to keep this all a secret for me. As for being called crazy, you should know not to speak to a spirit in front of people. Idiot."

Goten's tears began flowing again, not wanting this at all. It just seemed like a terrible reoccurring nightmare that he'd never wake up from. The child had done nothing to deserve this! He just wanted everything to return to normal! There was no way he was evil! Never him, never the son and brother of heroes! Not the sweet little boy who caught big fish for his mama every week! Not the boy who could ride the Nimbus without falling through!

Something just wasn't right.

"YOU'RE A BIG FAT LIAR!" he suddenly screamed, causing Bardock to jump back slightly. He was pointing an accusing, hateful finger at him. "YOU'RE THE EVIL SOUL JUST TRYING TO TRICK ME!"

The adult in the room opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it. He opened it again. "Shut up, kid. You're going to wake up everyone and I'll disappear again. I know you're confused, but it will all make sense soon. There's... so much I have to tell you. Some strange things are going to start happening soon."

There was silence as the two stared at each other, the glowing of the TV revealing different types of pain in their features. One of them held so many answers, and one of them had so many questions, neither of which could be answered at this time of night.

All Goten wanted to do was sleep and forget about this for however many hours his rest would be.

"Will you be here in the morning?" the child asked so innocently and exhaustively, that it threw Bardock off guard. From what he's seen, perhaps King Yemma may have sent him to the wrong boy.

Bardock gave him a single nod. "I can't really go anywhere else, kid. We'll talk later."

The boy in the dinosaur pajamas, with a sullen look on his face, turned his back on the dead man and crawled back to his spot next to Trunks. It didn't take long for him to start snoring, and once he did Bardock chuckled lowly.

Although he had been dead for over twenty years, his memory still prevailed. Goten looked exactly identical to the infant Kakarot, if Bardock had ever lived to see Kakarot grow into a child.

Bardock's dark eyes darted to the corner of the bed where the son of the prince began shifting his body. When the child sat up right, his usual mushroom-shaped hair was fluffed up in all different directions. His squinty eyes scanned the room. Goten was fast asleep, meaning Bardock was frightened by the presence of him or Goten fought Bardock without waking him up.

Trunks shrugged his shoulders.

It was definitely the first one.

The glowing screen on the TV had turned black before Trunks could press the off button on the remote. He blinked at the empty screen in surprise, but figured the power must have gone off or something.

He felt the cold breeze that was in his room leave silently, and fell right back asleep.

* * *

"Can I ask you a question?"

"You have been this whole damn time."

Standing on the step stool to see into the mirror, Goten wiped away the con-den-sation with the sleeve of his navy shirt.

"Why do we look so much alike? We've got the same hair and the same face! Well..not really. You look mean all the time."

"When you've seen what I've seen, you'd be angry too."

Bardock's face turned even meaner, causing Goten to shriek out of habit. The older, dead Saiyan smacked himself in the face while Chi-Chi was knocking on the door.

"Honey! Is everything okay in there?"

"Yes, mama! Just the constipation!"

"Condensation, moron."

The two remained silent until they heard the heels of Chi-Chi's boots tap the floor as she headed back to the breakfast table. The poor child's stomach growled just thinking about what waited for him out there. Bardock heard it as well and snorted.

"That's the good thing about being dead, kid. You don't feel hungry anymore."

"I didn't think you felt anything!" Goten exclaimed, and extended his hand out to touch the chest plate of the halo wearer. He giggled when he felt nothing and the Saiyan scowled. "Do I look like you because of the incineration?"

" _Reincarnation_. And that's not exactly why. Do you want to know the truth?"

It had been a few days since that night at Trunks' house, and Goten was finding himself the strangest companion in Bardock although the scarred face one didn't feel the same sentiments. He had been forcing the child to save old women from getting hit by cars, women from getting their purses stolen, and men from chased by dogs.

And still, Fortuneteller Baba (or Old Bat as Bardock liked to call her) hasn't shown up to take him to his rightful place in Other World.

The damn Saiyaman was taking care of all the good stuff.

"Tell me, tell me, tell me!" Goten jumped up and down on the stool, nearly breaking it.

Bardock put his finger to his lips, signaling for the boy to quiet down. The last thing he needed was Goten's mother thinking he was crazy.

"I hate dramatics, so I'll just come out and say it. I'm your grandfather."

"...Ox King is my grandpa, though…"

Bardock crossed his arms over his chest and uncrossed them repeatedly until he was sure he wouldn't scream at the child and make him lose trust. He sighed deeply and finally continued, clearing up the confusion on Goten's face.

"He's your mother's father, and I'm your father's father. Get it now?"

"OOOOH!" Goten nodded his head in a grand gesture. "That makes a lot of sense! I didn't think my dad had a dad!"

"Everyone has a dad, kid. Yours is just dead."

The words were spoken so bluntly that they went right over Goten's head. He shrugged his tiny shoulders and took a giant leap off the stool. Breakfast was calling his name, and he left the spirit of his grandfather standing in the bathroom looking stunned.

"That's it!?" He shouted after him. "A damn shrug!? Do you know how long it took me to tell you that!?"

Goten slid to a hault and pouted over his shoulder at his grandpa. "But it's breakfast time!"

The boy also wasn't too thrilled whenever Bardock told him something, because he wasn't even allowed to share it with anyone. There was just no fun in that at all. He heard Bardock mutter, "Unbelievable" under his nonexistent breath before the grandfather joined the seat next to him.

Chi-Chi dropped her fork when the chair moved on its own.

"...Did anyone else see that?"

Goten could feel Bardock's glare burning into the side of his face and he took a moment to stop stuffing eggs down his throat.

"See what, Mama?"

"Yeah Mom," Gohan said with a mouth full. He was blinded earlier by the plate blocking his face as he licked the remains. "See what?"

Chi-Chi shook her head, deciding that all this time without her husband was making her go crazy. Her young son must be getting this effect as well; she's been hearing him this past week talking to himself.

"Nothing. Forget it. Oh! Gohan! You're gonna be late!"

Gohan was shouting muffled "I know, I know"'s over and over again while attempting to put his book bag over his shoulder. Bardock was shaking his head in disappointment the entire time, but Goten shouted loudly to get his brother's attention before he left the door.

"Don't forget to save Chobi!"

His best friend had been abducted by a ringleader of a circus. They were all having dinner last night when the special news coverage of the brand new dinosaur baby show came on. It almost made Goten flip the table over before Bardock warned him not to.

"I know, bro! Don't worry! We'll get him back to his parents! I love you guys, bye!"

Goten mumbled sadly, "Goodbye…"

Despite Bardock's company, he was always sad whenever Gohan had to go to school. Chi-Chi gave him a surprising and loving kiss on the forehead, causing the sad child to beam once more.

"Do you think you could call Gohan out early today so he can save Chobi before that mean man does something?"

"Come on kid," Bardock relaxed into the chair and placed his arms behind his head for support. "Why don't you go do it yourself? Sounds like a heroic deed to me."

* * *

"Can I ask you something?"

Goten arched a black brow hearing Bra's voice come out in a whisper as if she were about to tell a secret. He decided to play along with her dramatics and glanced around the bakery in all sorts of directions before answering her.

"Go for it."

"If you mentioned this to my brother and daddy before, how come you told me you've kept this to yourself for so long?"

The man chuckled and took a bite of his blueberry muffin that Bra had paid for after she dropped their first order. It never ceased to amaze him the information she chose to pay attention to. The bakery was beginning to become crowded by the lunch rush hour, but she was only captivated by his story.

"We'll get there, alright? Man, you ask the lamest questions!"

The young girl crossed her arms over her jacket-protected chest and stuck her tongue out at him. It still had traces of pink muffin on it that made Goten snort.

"Okay, jerk. I only do that because you don't get to the things I _actually_ wanna know. For example," she pointed a manicured finger to the window next to them, where the scene of the car crash had happened. "What's it like knowing about the future!? Do I grow up to be even more beautiful than I am now!? Will I get married? Will I be stronger than Trunks!? Will-"

Per usual, he closed her lips with his thumb and forefinger. "Silence, young one. I can't see that far into the future. It's strange really," his mouth became full of muffin as soon as he released her. His fingers were covered in red lip gloss. "I can't really control it, but nobody knows when I start seeing visions because I've gotten so use to it. A man twice your age is about to ask for your number."

As predicted, a finely dressed man who was on a lunch break from his office strolled over with confidence to talk to the girl whose age he was mistaken. As he began speaking his pick up line, Goten reached over and grabbed her unexpected hand tightly. He flashed a grin at the businessman, who glared in return and walked away. Goten laughed as soon as Bra forcefully brought her hand back.

"Hey! He was actually handsome!"

"Oh, come on. I did the guy a favor. Vegeta would kill him before he even walked through the door."

"...Ugh, whatever. Just continue your stupid story."

* * *

The lie of going to visit Trunks worked surprisingly well. All Goten had to do was pray his mama didn't try calling Bulma.

The child and the spirit wandered through the streets of downtown Satan City, searching for signs of the circus. Orange Star High could be seen from where they were, but at this time of the day Gohan should be playing baseball.

"Hey Grandpa?"

That term still didn't sound right to his ears, but Bardock looked down at Goten anyway. "What, spawn?"

"Do you really think if I save Chobi, you'll go back home and everything will go back to the way it was before?"

"I fucking hope so…"

The two stopped in front of a man wearing a clown suit and shouting through a megaphone. Crowds of people were surrounding him, but Bardock walked right through them while Goten squeezed through the legs of the adults.

"Come one, come all! The next show starts in fifteen minutes, and you don't want to miss the magnificent flying of Dino the Dinosaur!"

"That must be Chobi!" Goten motioned for Bardock to follow him to the entrance. "Come on, come on!"

The child was blocked the clown, who held out his hand that didn't hold the megaphone.

"Ah, ah, ah. Can I see your ticket, little boy?"

Goten began stuttering out of fear, but Bardock saved the day by pulling the stool out from underneath the clown and sending him tumbling into the crowd. While people became distracted by the flying clown, Goten ran into the tent and began searching for his little pterodactyl friend.

"Choooobi!" He whispered loudly. "Chooooobi! It's me, Goten!"

A whipping sound caused Goten press his back against the wall of the tent while peeking into a small section. There, in a cage too small for his size, was Chobi. The ringleader from the newscast was demanding him to perform a trick he didn't want to, and in return was getting whipped.

Bardock looked down at the child's fists and could see them shaking violently. Although he knew Goten couldn't feel it, he placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him down.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, kid?"

"He's not going to get away with this!" The boy cried out and jumped in front of the ringleader, causing the greedy evil man to fall onto his bottom. He adjusted his shades with the hand that didn't hold the whip and snorted cruelly when he saw who scared him.

"Whaddya want, punk kid!? Go back to Mommy, this place isn't for you!"

Bardock's eyes widened when Goten began forming an energy ball in his hand, intending on using it on the ringleader if he tried anything funny.

"Uh, kid, listen. Killing the guy will definitely result in us going to Hell. Just calm down and think about it."

"Give me back Chobi or you'll get yours!" Goten threatened and even raised his hand a little. Chobi was clapping his chubby winged arms together, more than excited to see his rescuer. The ringleader was barely noticing the light in Goten's hands as he called security over his walky-talky.

"Yeah, I got some punk here tryna shoot me with a laser gun or sum'thin!"

When the security guards had come around the corner, Goten shot them away without turning his back on Chobi. Bardock watched in a mixture of horror and pride as the two guards flew out of the tent through a burning hole.

"Hey, hey, hey! I support random acts of violence as much as the next guy, but you're condemning me here! Just get the damn dinosaur and leave!"

"No." The child's voice was cold and unforgiving. He had witnessed the creature that was his only friend on Mount Paozu being whipped and abused. It just made his blood boil.

"No!?" Bardock wished he had his body back so he could strangle the living daylights out of this brat. "What the hell do you mean, no!? You think it's wise to talk back to me!?"

Ignoring the devilish appearance his grandfather was beginning to take on, Goten grabbed the confused ringleader by the collar of his shirt and began lifting him up.

"Kid, kid, kid, kid!" The man began to sweat. "Look, I made a mistake trying to tell a crazy kid that talks to himself what to do. Let me just use Dino for three more nights and I'll bring him home!"

Growling quite ferociously for such a tiny child, Goten balled his fist that was drenched in ki and got so close to punching the ringleader in his face. Instead, the youngest son of Goku was greeted by an iron bar that was ripped away from Chobi's cage.

Goten stopped himself from flying all the way to the main ring where oblivious families were beginning to take their seats. He went running back into Chobi's room to see Bardock standing there with the weapon.

"How could you, Grandpa!? Grandpas don't do that to grandsons!" Despite the previous raw fury before, Goten was on the verge of tears. The confused adult Saiyan lowered the bar.

"There really is something wrong with you, kid. One second you're innocent, the next you're trying to kill somebody. Oh, by the way, the asshole's getting away."

Goten whipped around to see the ringleader dragging away the struggling Chobi. He didn't make it far before Goten grabbed him by his arm and flipped him over. Chobi went flying as well, by the baby dinosaur floated in mid-air.

Before Bardock could hit Goten again, the child punched the sleazeball in his face and made his nose bleed bright red fluid.

"GOTEN!"

Recognizing the voice, Goten immediately released the man and saw the Great Saiyaman stalking towards him angrily. Already crying in regret for what he had done, his older brother only made it worse by grabbing him tightly by the shoulders and shaking him.

"How could you do that, Goten!? What would Mom say if she saw you like this!?"

"I-I-"

Ignoring his sniffles, Gohan kept a stern face from behind his helmet and held on tighter. "I told you I was going to get rescue Chobi, didn't I!? I don't know what's been up with you lately, but you know better than this! Violence doesn't solve anything and you should never, EVER hurt somebody when it's this uncalled for!"

Sobbing now at his brother's loud voice, Goten didn't know what to do. Bardock had disappeared and he could hear police sirens on the way. Gohan was growing tired of his brother's silence and released him.

"Just go home before it's too late, Goten. We'll talk later. I'll be surprised if you could still ride Nimbus."

Hurt and aching once his brother turned his back on him to handle the situation, Goten hunched his shoulders and walked to a wall of the tent. He was about to open it to escape under the tapestry, but glanced at his disappointed brother one last time.

"I'm so sorry, Gohan… Just please don't tell Mama…"

As angry as he tried to be, Saiyaman just couldn't do it. He dropped his formerly crossed arms to his sides and turned around to face his brother again.

"Don't worry, bro. I won't. Just come home now, okay? I don't want your face to be on the news."

Once Goten smiled again, Gohan did the same and watched until his little brother made his escape. The Great Saiyaman took in a deep breath and released it before turning around to face the crowd that was beginning to appear.

"GOHAN!"

"AH!"

A finger dressed in a black glove pointed at his chest and blue eyes as wild as the ocean danced knowing the truth. "I knew it! I knew it was you!"

"...Crap…"

* * *

"I'm surprised such a dumb kid knows how to write."

Bardock was resting against a tree while the still-sniffling child worked out his hand in a notebook. If he wasn't allowed to tell anyone about Bardock anymore, he needed some sort of outlet.

"You're the dummy! I'm drawing, not writing!"

The Saiyan squinted at the childish artwork. It seemed to be some kind of pink man or creature wearing loose white pants.

"That's not suppose to be me, is it? I mean I know kids can't draw for shit, but come on. It's not even the same skin tone."

Goten shook his head. He was lying on his stomach in the grass with his feet kicking the air as he finished coloring in the being. He made sure the emblem on his belt was gold with a black 'M' written big.

"I saw him in one of my daydreams! All he was doing was walking towards this kid with black and purple hair. Then, I woke up! Here's the boy!"

Bardock became tongue-tied as Goten flipped the pages. Although it was a giant scribble, the grandfather could see the boy in the drawing was wearing the same type of pants as the pink creature and his black hair with purple streaks was spiked up.

"Don't tell me he has visions, too…"

"What's that, Grandpa?"

Bardock shook his head. That didn't make much sense. His curse should have died along with him.

"Is this the first daydream you've had?"

The boy tapped his pink crayon against his chin while thinking deeply. He beamed up at his grandfather when the answer finally came to him.

"I think so!"

"GOTEN!"

The two in the grass looked up to see the Great Saiyaman coming in for a landing. Something was different; in place of Saiyaman's helmet was a bandanna. Bardock rolled his eyes and brought himself back to the tree as Gohan pressed the button on his watch. Back in his school clothes and bandannaless, he sat down next to Goten while the child sat on his notebook to hid it.

"...Are you mad at me. Gohan?"

Gohan flashed his bright teeth at his little brother and draped a muscular arm over his shoulder. "I'll admit you did get me in a bit of pickle, but it's nothing to worry about now. Do you want to help me convince Mom to let me fight in the World Martial Arts Tournament?"

Goten's eyes lit up as bright as the sun. "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Do you think I can enter the tournament, too!? Do ya do ya do ya!?"

The older brother chuckled and gently forced Goten off of him. "It's all up to Mom, bro. We really have to try hard to convince her, but I think it's going to be easy with some amazing news I just received…"

The child leaned in close, his eyes as large as Dragon Balls. "What is it!?"

"Dad's gonna be there! You finally get to meet him!"

Goten's mouth opened into a large 'O' as he looked over at Bardock. The grandfather spirit was standing up straight now and his hands looked like they didn't know what to do. He began pacing back and forth, leaving the child to frown and look at his brother again.

"Is this a bad thing, Gohan?"

"What!?" The older brother laughed. "No way! This is amazing! Gosh, I feel so happy for you. He's a wonderful, wonderful man!"

Goten was torn. Bardock was looking like he was about to lose his mind while Gohan hadn't smiled like this in forever. In this type of situation, it was best to go with his brother. Goten leaned on his shoulder and finally smiled again.

They remained liked that as they rehearsed their plan to convince Chi-Chi, and Goten did his best to ignore the cursing of his grandfather in the background.

Then, out of nowhere, the leaves above them began to blow uncontrollably. They got to their feet and looked up at the culprit of the sudden wind. It was a giant white jetcopter with a Mr. Satan insignia on the side.

"No...NO! NO!" Gohan began hopping back and forth on his feet, doing his nervous dance. Goten giggled and joined him. "No! If she's here now, she's going to ruin everything!"

"What do you mean?" Goten kept dancing and looked up at his brother. "Who is 'she'?"

The jetcopter landed at the same time Bardock stood next to Goten. He ordered him to stop moving like that and the child listened. The hatch opened and a teenage girl with black pigtails that strongly contrasted against her sapphire eyes hopped out.

Goten remembered her from the circus tent and lowered his head in shame.

"What's she doing here…" he grumbled.

"I have no idea," his brother spoke through gritted teeth while trying to smile. "I didn't even give her my address!"

The brothers and Bardock remained silent until Videl stood inches away from them. She placed her gloved hands on her hips and scowled at the eighteen year old.

"I'm ready for my flying lessons now."

"Videl…" the teen blushed. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked over his shoulder to make sure his mother wasn't looking through the window at the scene. "It's really not a good time right now…"

The girl huffed and dug into the pockets of her small black shorts to reveal some type of cell phone. "Do you know how far the word will spread of Saiyaman's true identity if I tell Erasa?"

When the two began going back and forth, Goten looked up at his grandfather and frowned. "I don't really like her, Grandpa. Gohan said she's going to mess everything up with Mama. Can you do something?"

Bardock nodded. "It's sickening to me, too. I'll take care of this."

Goten watched in silence as his grandfather hovered up to a large branch that belonged to his resting tree. With a simple tug, he was able to remove it and swung it hard in the direction of Videl.

"THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!" Goten shouted, which caused Gohan to notice the giant hunk of tree hurling towards Videl. The hero tackled her to the ground, and the branch continued flying through the meadow.

"Oh..my head…" Videl opened her eyes slowly to find herself pinned underneath Gohan. Her face reddened from both embarrassment and anger while the eighteen year old male looked around frantically to figure out where that branch had come from.

"GOHAN! HOW DARE YOU!"

Bardock released a thunderous laughter that was even strange to him to hear when Chi-Chi came stomping out of the house with a broomstick in her hands. Goten began whistling to himself and moved out of the way of the marching mama.

"I can't believe what I'm seeing! I trusted you! And in front of your brother for crying out loud!"

It wasn't until she said that the tomato-faced hybrid looked down and realized just where he was. He let out a scream that brought more shame to his grandfather and started running from his mother's broom attack while trying to explain himself.

After feeling like this was partially his fault, Goten offered his small hand to the girl still on the ground.

"It's okay, Videl! I know the Red Bastard won't send you to Hell when Mama kills you!"

* * *

The laughs of the blue-haired teenager and her spiky black-haired company filled the table by the window. Goten thought he wouldn't make it through that part of the story before losing it. Bra took a sip of water to get her face to return to its normal peachy color.

"I can't believe those two are married and had Pan now!"

Goten scrunched the muffin wrapper in his hands and watched the crumbs sprinkle the napkin. "Life is crazy like that, sometimes. They belong together."

Bra smiled sweetly, silently agreeing with him. Her cold index finger tapped the notebook Goten had placed on the desk.

"Can I look through it?"

When he nodded, the daughter of Vegeta flipped through the pages until she found the pink man from the story. She held the paper close to her face, recognizing the scribbled figure but not able to place a name with it.

"Do you know its..? His…? Her...name?"

"Majin Buu."

The cold way he said it caused Bra to look up from the drawing and shrink in her seat. He was staring at the paper with eyes so hateful that she thought he was going to burn holes through it. She could hear his breathing start to become heavier, and his fists were clenched so tightly to fight back against violence.

She placed one hand on top of his balled up fist and the other on her beating heart.

What had this monster done to him?


	4. Fox and the Hound

"They're still going at it?"

The boy grabbed his heart as if he were about to faint while his grandfather's soul rolled his eyes. Gohan was still getting lectured by his mother as Videl tried her best to speak over her and explain the incident. The louder she became, the angrier Chi-Chi became.

"Where the heck did you go!?" Goten looked up at Bardock, who was lazily rested in a tree branch he hadn't tried to impale Videl with. "I thought maybe you finally went back to the Red Bastard."

A snicker could be heard even though Goten couldn't see his grandfather's face. The spirit was studying the orange fruit growing side by side with the leaves.

"I tried. I thought I sensed the Old Bat in this world, but she was gone by the time I got to that island. What kind of fruit is this?"

"Oranges. What island?"

"Are humans that moronic they couldn't come up with another name-" Bardock stopped mid-insult when his youngest living grandson plopped onto his torso cross-legged. Their noses touching, their eyes blinking. "Did you just _crawl_ up here?"

"Yeah-huh."

"Why in the hell did you do that!? Saiyans don't crawl, they fly!"

Goten blushed as his eyes continued to blink rapidly. "Gohan's s'pose to teach me..."

"I've got a premature brat and a fruitcake as my next of kin..." Bardock mumbled under his breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. "My visions didn't have this bullshit."

"You have the daydreams too!?" Goten smiled so brightly that Bardock nearly squinted at the pearly whites. At least the boys' mom kept them clean. "Why didn't you say something earlier when I told you 'bout the pink monster?"

The grandfather shook his head and revealed his profile to the boy. He was eyeing the fighting trio on the grass; the mother finally backing up and claiming she would make lunch as long as the teenagers trained and didn't make out again.

"Go train with your brother, kid. There's not much a spirit can help you with."

Goten could hear the change in Bardock's voice and frowned. This usually happened to his mama when she talked about his dad. The boy decided to help him the same way he helped Chi-Chi.

His warm, small hands connected with one another when his arms wrapped around Bardock. The seven year old rested his cheek on his grandfather's chest plate and talked in a deep, goofy voice like the purple dinosaur on the morning TV.

"It's okay, Grandpa! Daydreams aren't scary because they're not real, just like nightmares! And don't worry, I'll do my very best to do something heroic so you can go back home soon!"

"GOTEN! IF YOU WANNA TRAIN WITH US, NOW IS THE TIME TO GET OUT OF THE TREE!"

"I'MMA COMING!" the little brother shouted back. Luckily, Gohan wasn't close enough to see him hugging thin air. Goten pulled back and grinned at his grandfather, who was looking even more uneasier than before. Having more strength than any normal seven year old should have, Goten gave Bardock another embrace around the neck before jumping out of the tree.

Frozen on the branch with his arms behind his neck still, only Bardock's eyes moved as he watched Goten skip to where his brother and that strange girl were. A few things weren't right.

The more he thought about it, this situation didn't add up. If this child was the 'bad' spirit, why was he so damn innocent? Sure, there were sudden bursts of evil like when he tried killing that circus freak, but all Saiyans had a little bit of that in them.

It took seven whole years for the red bastard to let him know why his spirit was still around. How in the hell could Bardock, the destroyer of everything nice, be the 'good' one?

Seven years of being a soul trapped in a void. If King Yemma had just given him his body right after the incident and allowed him to travel to Other World, Bardock could have been with his son already instead of this crappy world. To make it even worse, every good deed the child and himself had done together wasn't good enough for the red bastard.

"Son of a bitch," Bardock cursed under his breath. His fangs revealed themselves while his fists curled into a tight ball that would break his skin if he had a body. "I'll kill him the moment I set my eyes on him. He's making a fool out of me."

Goten looked over his shoulder when he heard the sound of boots colliding with the grassy ground. His grandfather was stomping away. He opened his mouth to call out to him, but decided it wasn't worth having Gohan's new friend think there was something wrong with him.

"Hope you feel better soon, Grandpa..."

* * *

She was pretty, but not pretty-pretty like his mama. She was more like a dog that he would pet but wouldn't want to bring it home or have the responsibility of owning her.

"You stare too much, little boy! Is there something you wanna say!?"

She was feisty like one, too!

"Are you just mad Videl because I can do this-" Goten made a figure-8 in the air and flashed a peace sign at the scowling teenager. "And you can't?"

"You've been giving him extra lessons behind my back!" Videl punched the previously laughing Gohan on the shoulder, making him wince. "I thought we had a deal! Do you know how quickly I can dial Erasa?"

The other teen, never catching a break these days, rubbed the back of his neck. "No, no, no! My brother's just very advanced for his age. Drinks plenty of milk, ya know, and man those oats! I mean... Uh..."

Goten couldn't believe how red this girl made his big brother. Gohan could out run and even mess with a pack of hungry wolves and not shed a tear. Frankly, the older Saiyan looked like he could pee his pants any minute when Videl was around.

"LUNCH TIME!" came their mother's call. Goten was just grateful it wasn't meat loaf this time. He was fixing to race his brother and Videl to the picnic table on the other side of the house when a strong hold on his collar kept him in place. He threw his messy hair of spikes back to see a familiar pissed off face.

"Be there in a minute, Gohan!"

"ALRIGHT BRO! NO PROMISES ON ANY FOOD LEFT FOR YOU!"

"Awh, man!" Goten growled and crossed his arms over his chest when he turned to face Bardock. "This better be quick... Hey, where'd you go off to anyway!? That island again?"

Bardock snarled back and pushed the child back. "I needed some time to myself is all. You get pretty annoying with all that touchy-feely crap."

"Then why'd you come back!?"

"We really need to talk about those daydreams you've been having..." Bardock raised a dark black eyebrow at the tiny raised fists and smirked. "Oh, I see how it's gonna be. Think you're a tough little shit now just because you can barely get in the air?"

Goten mimicked a stance he witnessed his brother taking in one of their pre-Videl training sessions. He crouched down with one foot outward and the knee on his other leg was bent. One palm was pulled backward to search the energy of his opponent while a threatening fist was lowered to his side.

"And you think you're a tough little s-h-e-e-t just because you don't have a real body!"

"I can't believe this! You're _so dumb_ , kid!" Bardock snorted and jumped backward when Goten leaped towards him. It kept going on like that until Bardock flew up into the air with the 'happiest' smirk such a miserable person could muster. "I'm really loving that killer look in your eyes, though. Reminds me of me."

"Rrrrgh... You gonna talk or you gonna fight!?" Goten tried connecting his fist to his grandfather's jaw, but the adult dodged everything to make the boy feel slow.

Which made him feel angry.

"Why not both!?" Bardock kicked Goten's chin with the heel of his boot and made him cry out. "Your daydreams aren't just daydreams, kid. They're visions. They hurt like hell, right?"

"Yeah," Goten sniffled and rubbed his sore spot. "W-Why did you hit me, Grandpa!? Grandpas aren't suppose to do that to their grandsons!"

"I ain't your average grandpa," Bardock snickered when Goten began to growl again. "Before you wet yourself, just listen to me. Those little daydreams of yours? They're going to happen eventually. I don't know how, but you can see into the future like I use to be able to."

Goten lowered his fists and blinked. It was like the moment he fully absorbed Bardock's words, someone pointed a remote at him and set him on slow motion. His eyes widened first and then his lips began to quiver. The sudden change in ferocity to plain fear concerned the spirit of the Saiyan warrior.

"There was something more than just that pink freak walking towards a purple and black haired boy, wasn't there?"

Bardock reached his hand out when the seven year old gripped his head and began hunching over. Still in the air, his body was shaking all over. Not sure what he could possibly do, Bardock shook his head and brought his hand back to his side.

"Stand up straight, boy. Whatever you say, now isn't the time to have a little breakdown. I'm you, you're me. Remember? Saiyans don't act like this. Get your pathetic self together."

Surprisingly, his words of encouragement didn't work. Once the screaming started, Bardock rubbed the back of his neck. Just as he predicted, the other grandson and the pain-in-the-ass women appeared.

"What's wrong, bro!? I swear I didn't eat your food!"

"He really didn't, sweetheart!"

Videl made no comment. If Bardock didn't know any better, he swore she was piercing him with her sapphire eyes like she knew he was there making the situation worse. The warrior's spirit groaned and tried again.

"Now they all think you're throwing some sort of temper tantrum over lunch. Why don't you-"

"I WON'T LET HIM KILL MY MOM!"

"...What the... hell?"

Bardock lowered himself slowly to Gohan's side as the blackened hair of Goten began moving upwards in little golden sparks. Soon, it was standing all the way up and glowing brighter than the sun. His dark eyes had turned icy green, so icy that it even gave a spirit the chills. He looked to his older grandson for answers, but the teen was just as shocked as he was.

"He's...He's uh...SUPER SAIYAN!?"

"A Super Saiyan!?" Bardock shouted in his ear as if he could hear him. "Are you sure!?"

Chi-Chi rubbed her temples and shut her eyes tightly. "Oh, not again, not again! I told Goten not to turn into a little monster anymore!"

"YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS!?" Gohan continued his hysterics, completely forgetting who his guest was. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME!? MY SEVEN YEAR OLD BROTHER IS A FRIGGIN SUPER SAIYAN!"

"My grandson is a Super Saiyan..."

"MY SON IS A MONSTER!"

"Th-There's two golden fighters...?" Videl had nearly spaced out but was brought back to Earth now. "The one I saw was much taller... and...Hmmm..." Her dark brows knitted together as she turned her attention to Gohan.

"Wh-What!?" the poor young adult couldn't think at this moment, and it made it even worse she was looking into his eyes. "I had no idea about this!"

"Gohan," Chi-Chi interrupted Videl before she could even open her mouth. "The girl already knows too much. Just tell her the truth but make sure she gives you some of your rightfully earned money."

"MOM!"

"SPILL IT, GOHAN!" Videl grinned from ear to ear, pointing him hard in the chest. "You lied about being the Golden Fighter as well as Saiyaman! Right, right!?"

"Videl, I-"

Bardock backhanded the girl's head but was still nice enough to help her to the ground. At least this way, she'd wake up thinking it was a dream.

After seeing Videl go down, Goten went back to his base form and hurried down to his family. He had his little fists balled up and tears from earlier were in the corner of his eyes as he glared up at Bardock.

"How could you do that to her!?"

"Do what!?" Gohan shot back. He was already picking Videl up in his arms to bring inside the house. "I didn't do anything! She blacked out from seeing you turn into a Super Saiyan! I'm impressed... BUT THAT'S BESIDE THE POINT! You know better than to transform into a Super Saiyan in front of people! Especially _this_ people!"

Goten frowned and looked down at his navy boots. It wasn't his fault. Sometimes it just comes out on its own and he can't control it. Just the image of his mom...

He didn't want to think anymore.

When she began scolding him for what he had done, he toned her out and just studied her face. How could it be real that he might not see it anymore? Couldn't anyone understand just how painful that is? He was just happy seeing her in front of him that he wrapped his little arms around her leg as tightly as he could and cried into the material of her dress. It silenced her completely.

Chi-Chi was holding her young son while Goten held the knocked out Videl, bringing them to their small, but love-filled home. Bardock just stood there in the grassy field, mouth agape and eyebrows furrowed.

"What the hell just happened!?"

* * *

Bra had her hands pressed to her mouth out of shock. Goten was able to get these words out so easily although what she was picturing in her head was so painful, even though it wasn't happening to her.

"I had no idea you saw awful things, too... I'm so sorry, Goten..."

The young man rubbed her hand instead of the other way around. One thing he learned from Bardock was to not let others pity him. "Eh, no worries. It's a curse and a blessing."

"What happened with Videl?"

Goten snorted. "She rode my brother's ass for weeks about it, but the three of us kept making her believe she dreamed it all. I mean, she discovered the truth eventually, but at least we got away with it when we really needed it."

Bra silently admired the way his head moved to the side when he laughed and then shook her head. There was something even more impressive about him. "You say this all happened before I was born..."

"Yeees..?"

"That was more than fifteen years ago... How do you remember all this so clearly?"

Goten grinned and tapped his temple twice. "I have no idea, but there's more than my memories up here. I have all of his, too. And he's seen some crazy stuff. Disturbing. It would make a good bedtime story, though."

"Just keep going, stupid."

* * *

"He's dragging me away from the phone as we speak," Goten's neck was becoming strained as he fought to hold onto the wall with one hand and the phone clutched in the other. "He doesn't want me to introduce him to anyone but you just gotta believe me, Trunks! Please!"

"You little shit," Bardock seethed. His fingers were wrapped tightly around Goten's ankle as he struggled to drag him away. "I told you not to go around blabbing your mouth about this!"

"Trunks, you gotta ask your dad, okay!? Ask him! It's Bar-dock. Baaaaardock. Got it?"

"Got it dude," a voice came from the other end. "OH! I can't believe I almost forgot to tell you! Gohan was here earlier changing his outfit or whatever, it's still lame but anyway your da-"

The phone and Goten went flying towards the shut door, falling to the floor with a loud thud. Chi-Chi immediately came out of her bedroom and shook her head at the sight of her young son sitting on his head and smiling nervously. A broken phone was next to him in pieces.

"I don't know what's been wrong with you lately, but surely you're not that mixed up that you forget we can't afford things like new phones!" Chi-Chi sighed heavily and brought her son up right and then picked up what was left of her phone. "Come on. After all the training you've done with your brother, I know you're hungry."

Goten pouted. He wished he could blame all his hardships on Bardock since it was the truth, but his mom already had too much on her mind to worry about a ghost in the house. The boy sat down at the table and looked at his currently empty place mat.

"Mama?"

"Hm?"

"What if... I fought in the tournament too and won the money? Could we get a new phone then?"

Chi-Chi was in the process of tying her hair back before serving the hot soup but stopped midway to smile at her young son. It was always so hard to stay mad at him. "Oh, I don't know honey. We'll see. Having both of my boys in it _does_ give us a greater chance, though."

Goten smiled gratefully when she placed the bowl in front of him and thanked her immediately. The smile disappeared though when he noticed Bardock was giving his mom a strange look.

"Ahem!"

"You need some water, sweetie?"

"No, Mama! Thank you!" Goten grinned and then scowled at Bardock when his mother looked away again. The grandfather rolled his eyes.

"Relax. I'm not going to do anything to her. I'm just wondering why she looks... different today."

It was obvious to Goten that it was the hair; his mama always had a neat bun but today it wasn't even holding. It had dropped down until she'd grown tired of it and let it hang down. She always looked much younger that way.

And still prettier than Videl the dog.

"How in the hell did she grow all of this in one night...?" Bardock raised an eyebrow and began moving some of her locks off her shoulder. He froze when Chi-Chi gasped and looked right up at him.

"...Mama?" Goten swore she saw him, but when she looked down at her bowl of soup her eyes were watery. She blinked them away so her son couldn't see.

"I just thought I felt someone familiar, honey. That's all."

When her voice broke, Goten glared at Bardock for getting her upset but the grandfather awkwardly walked away. Her shoulders began shaking, but she still wouldn't let Goten see her tears. She always did that.

"Mama! It's okay, Gohan's coming! I can feel him!"

The door burst open wildly, sending the unsuspecting and now cursing Bardock onto the sofa. In his new helmet-less, bandanna-fied costume, Gohan began jumping up and down like a child who had just received a year's worth of candy.

"MOM! MOM! YOU'LL NEVER BELIEVE IT!" Gohan grabbed his previously crying mother by the hands and pulled her up. He began jumping up and down, his red cape doing the same behind him.

"What, that your outfit could get even more heinous..."

"Just spill it, Gohan!" Chi-Chi laughed a true one. "I've never seen you this excited!"

"DAD'S COMING HOME! I mean, it's just for a day but STILL! He's going to be in the tournament and then with us and it's going to be so great!"

"AHHHHH!" Chi-Chi screamed so loudly that this time Goten fell over in his chair. Her and Gohan were both jumping up and down now, squeezing each other. Once Goten stood up again, Chi-Chi rubbed his head and beamed. "Isn't this great, honey!? You get to finally meet your father!"

Goten held his hands together in front of him as if he didn't know what to do. His mother and brother seemed so happy though, so he knew it was a good thing. But there was a strange feeling in his tummy. He looked up at Bardock who was scowling harder than ever. "What is it now?" the boy whispered.

"That's some bullshit!" Bardock hissed. "If he gets to fight in the tournament that means he has his damn body! What the hell are they doing up there!? They couldn't give me my body for a damn day!?"

"To be fair," Goten continued whispering, but at this point it didn't seem to matter. The other two members of his family were screaming their heads off. "My brother said my dad saved the world... What have you done?"

Bardock just made incoherent noises while Goten pulled on the sleeve of his mother's dress for attention. She was crying happy tears this time.

"Yes, Goten?"

"Can I go see Trunks for a little bit, Mama? I promise I'll give you a call when I get there and another one when I leave and that I'll be okay out there I promise just pretty please..."

Overwhelmed with joy of her husband returning for even twenty hours, she nodded. "Of course! Have a blast! I think I have to start preparing all of your father's favorite food tonight!"

Goten faked a chuckle and headed out the door with his notebook clutched to his chest. Bardock was storming after him, of course, and followed him into the reddening sky.

"Why in the hell are you going to that brat's house!? I told you I don't want you to keep blabbing your mouth about me!"

Goten raised his notebook in the air and shook it twice. "This has all the pictures in it from the daydreams I've had! I'm not going to tell any of them the truth, I just wanna see if his mama recognizes anything. She's real smart! Maybe his dad, too. But he kinda scares me."

"I swear if you try anything-"

Goten shook his head. "It's not what you think, Grandpa! I also really gotta see Trunks. The black and purple haired boy really has something to do with him, I think. I just gotta make sure."

"What makes you think that?"

"He's the only person I know with purple hair!"

Bardock hooded his eyes. He actually thought the boy was onto something. The two only flew for one minute in silence until Bardock's gears began turning, something that very rare for a full-blooded Saiyan warrior.

"What about that pink thing you've been seeing?"

"I don't want to talk about him," Goten pouted. "Please. I'll get angry."

"I'm just trying to figure something out kid. Look, let's add this all up," Bardock struck out a fist and began raising a finger after each sentence. "We know there's a pink guy coming to Earth. We know he's going to do bad things. We know your father is coming. We know there's a tournament. Don't you see? It's all coming together for a reason! Your dad's just going to be here for moral support!"

"For what?" Goten really didn't know, but Bardock was sounding more and more excited after each word he spoke.

"This has to be it," Bardock snapped his fingers and grinned wickedly, something that Goten had never seen before. "You defeat that pink freak and save the whole damn world! Not your father, not your brother, _you and me!_ I'll go to where I rightfully belong and when your time comes, I'll see ya there. Damn, kid. I'm actually excited for the first time in three decades!"

Although his smile was creeping Goten out, at least it _was_ a smile and not a smirk. He raised his little fist in the air while continuing to fly next to the spirit of the Saiyan warrior. "Woohoo! I'm gonna save the world!"

"That's right!" Bardock's fangs flashed despite the setting sun. "My Super Saiyan grandson is going to kick some ass!"

"Haha, yeah- Oh..." Goten scratched his head with his free hand. "But... I'm not really sure I know how."

"It's all in your bloodline, my boy. You're going to do great. We'll just out train your brother in every aspect."

"Gohan's real strong, ya know... Stronger than my dad, I bet!" Goten waited for Bardock's response but never got one. He looked over his shoulder to see the spirit of the dead Saiyan warrior had fallen behind due to thinking again. "What's wrong, Grandpa? Is it my dad? Don't worry, I'm scared too!"

Bardock shook his head and caught up with his grandson easily. "I'm not scared, moron. I'm just concerned for several reasons that-"

"It's okay to be scared!"

"I'M NOT SCARED!" Bardock squeezed his eyes tightly so he wouldn't backhand the brat two days in a row. "I just have a feeling since he'll still be dead, he can see me. I don't think I'm ready for someone else besides you to see me. Especially him."

"Don't you love him?"

"What?"

"He's your son, you gotta love him!"

Unsure of what he was talking about, Bardock still knew he didn't like that tone of voice. He snickered evilly and looked at Goten through his peripherals. "I'm not sure any of you are going to recognize your father when he returns to Earth."

"Why not? They all say he looks just like me! A big me!"

"Mmhm, that's true. But he'll come back in a dead body. You know what a dead body looks like, right? After it's rotted and eaten out by worms..."

"N-No..."

"Remember that movie your mom wouldn't let you watch but you did anyway a few nights ago? What was it, again? Zumba, zebra... Eh, whatever. Catch ya at your friend's house, kid!"

Goten was left hanging in the air, watching the spirit of his grandfather cruise through the air faster than any jet. He started trembling where he stood.

"D-D-Die You Zombie Bastards..."

* * *

"You ever hear the story about The Fox and the Hound?"

"Mm..no. Why?"

"It sounds like yours and Bardock's relationship! Not aware of your natural boundaries!" Bra revealed all of her perfect teeth to the man sitting across from her and winked. "I hope your story ends better than theirs, though."

Goten crumpled the waxed paper that contained muffin crumbs and chucked into the trash can across the room. A child paying attention to their table the whole time gasped loudly and clapped his hands. Goten gave him a thumbs up and laughed before bringing his dark eyes back to Bra's blue ones.

"How did their story end?"

"They promised they'd be friends forever, but the hound gets pissed at the fox for getting this old dog he lives with get hit by a train and break his leg so the hound goes out to kill the fox but the fox ends up saving the hound and the owner from getting killed by a bear but the hound still can't be friends with the fox and they go their separate ways."

"...And this is a children's story?"

Bra rolled her eyes. "You're missing the point entirely! Obviously with him being dead already you two can't be best friends forever. One goes up there and one stays here. The bear is Majin Buu, you're the fox, and Bardock's the hound. Makes sense, right?"

"Mm...Way off. But I appreciate your predictions," Goten winked. "Tell me this, how can we ever be apart if we're one in the same?"

"What do you mean?"

"I _am_ him, Bra. I see it in the mirror, I see it when I'm fighting, I see it in my dreams. I'm what he could have been if he never died in the first place. You see, you don't age in Other World. I'm older than him at this moment. Crazy, huh?"

Bra nodded her head while flipping through the pages of his notebook. It's been touched so many times that she couldn't believe it had managed to stay together. She thought that name Majin Buu sounded familiar, but the only pink guy she could think of lived with Videl's dad and she couldn't remember his name. Besides, that one was fat. In all these drawings, he was thin.

He could have just let himself go after all these years.

"It's starting to get a little crowded in here, Goten. Do you think we could go somewhere else to finish your story?"

The hybrid grinned. He had been waiting for her to ask that. "I'll take you to the island."

Bra blinked, but snapped her fingers when she remembered that Bardock said something about an island while searching for the 'Old Bat'. "And what's on this island, exactly?"

"Papayas."


	5. The Bardock Within

**A/N** : This chapter is kind of here to get me into the flow of writing this story again. I stopped because I thought nobody was enjoying it but read some reviews and realized how wrong I was. I am going to update this with hopefully a kick ass chapter next time, but as I said this was just to get back into the swing of things and allow the story to move on :-)

Thanks for the continuous support and enjoy!

* * *

His best friend had truly gone insane this time.

The lavender haired boy glanced up from the pictures in a notebook to the corner of his bedroom. Goten was hugging his knees to his chest and rocking back and forth like a mental patient.

"Z-Zombie Bastards... Oh no..."

Trunks rolled his eyes and plopped down by the shaken up kid. "Dude, I told you not to watch that movie. Your little brain can't handle mature content."

Poor Goten was trembling. How in the world could he meet his father knowing he'd have worms crawling out of his eye sockets!? The child buried his head into his knees so his friend wouldn't see the tears beginning to form.

"I can't handle this anymore, Trunks! A zombie bastard dad and the pink monster who is going to kill my mama... I can't! I wish Bardock was a good man from the start so when he died he could have just gone to the upper part and left me alone!"

Bardock flipped off his grandson. He was tempted to speak or throw a semi-heavy object at the kid's overgrown head, but he couldn't bring attention to his non-existent self with the prince's son in the room.

Trunks looked at the pink monster Goten drew and scratched his head. "So is he an overgrown piece of bubblegum or something?"

The Capsule Corporations heir couldn't help but sound clueless. Goten had just burst through his bedroom window, threw him the notebook, and began to have a nervous breakdown. Trunks looked over his shoulder at the half open bedroom door. He closed it all the way, soundlessly, to make sure all the nosy people in the house wouldn't spy on them.

Goten still hadn't responded to Trunks' question. He was continuing to sob into his knees.

"Is that Bardock guy here right now?"

That got Goten's attention.

The child sat up straight, and Trunks sweat-dropped watching him wipe his tears away with the back of his sleeve. He suddenly acted like he wasn't being a sissy a few seconds ago.

Before the child responded, he looked in Bardock's direction. The grumpy grandpa was slitting his throat with his finger, the universal sign of 'you better keep your fool mouth shut before I kill everyone in this room'. Goten sighed a ragged breath. He didn't want to lie to his best friend, but he also didn't want to feel Bardock's wrath.

"I want to tell you something really, _really_ important but you have to promise not to send me to the funny farm, okay?"

When Trunks spit into his own hand, Goten did the same. They made a Spit Oath with one another by shaking hands, causing Bardock to gag.

"What the hell was that for!?"

Now that they were Spit Brothers united, Goten began explaining his explicit daydreams. Trunks grew wide-eyed hearing about the death and destruction caused by the one in the illustrations. Goten still couldn't discuss what the pink monster did to his mother, so he skipped to the part about the monster and the black-and-purple haired boy fighting one another in a strange place.

"And I just dunno, Trunks! I wish... I just wish I could draw exactly what my mind is showing me! It's so scary!" The child wanted to tell his best friend more than what was said, but Bardock was looking at him more scarier than usual. He felt like he'd send a blast straight through his chest if he ratted out too much. "Would you think I was crazy if I told you that I know for sure it's going to come true!?"

Trunks blinked. "Well duh. But what makes you so damn sure?"

Goten nodded his head so quickly it could have rolled off if it weren't so strongly attached to his neck. Bardock would change that if he spilled the beans. The child frowned. "I can't tell you, I promised Bardock."

"Fucking kid!"

"Ah ha!" Trunks jumped to his feet and took a toy sword (his mother told him it was real) off the wall. "Alright, Goten. Be my eyes! Point me in the direction of the big ugly dummy and I'll chop him into little pieces!"

Bardock rolled his eyes. The little purple idiot was going to get it. "Call off your dog before I euthanize him."

"Trunks, no!" Goten cried out and stood in front of his sword wielding friend. "Bardock said he's going to experience you!"

"...What?"

"Kid, you're a fucking idiot..." Bardock groaned. Out of all the people in the world, he had to be tied to a dipstick. Yemma must really hate him knowing that Gohan could have been a possibility. Bardock would even put up with the hideous costumes if it meant having a reincarnation of himself that was actually bright. "My patience with you is running thin."

"I'm trying!" Goten whined. He had turned his back to a very confused Trunks and was flailing his arms. "My patience with you is running fat! I want to start training so we can beat up the bubblegum monster and save the world so you can finally leave me alone!"

"Fine by me!"

"Fine!"

"Perfect!"

"YEAH IT IS!"

Trunks had lowered his sword to his side. Goten wasn't the type to just straight up talk to himself, and get so heated doing so. He noticed that the messy haired child's fists were balled up tightly, prepared to deck the ghost back to Hell.

"Hey dude?"

Goten stuck his tongue back in his mouth the same time Bardock did. The boy watched the spirit disappear out Trunks's open window and then let out a heavy sigh. He brought his attention back to his friend. "Sorry about that Trunks. Grandpa can be so mean sometimes..."

"...Grandpa?"

Nobody in this world could possibly understand how hard it was for a seven year old to keep his mouth shut when he knew so many juicy secrets. Trunks didn't deserve to live without knowing what he did. Bardock was long gone now, at least the Bardock of Bardock Past. Goten was Bardock Present. Or Bardock Future? He wasn't quite sure.

He really needed to brush up on his ghost skills and watch that Christmas movie over again.

"Ya got me Trunks," the young boy raised his hands in the air as if he was caught robbing a convenient store. "You gotta promise me somethin' though once I tell you the biggest secret of our whole lives!"

Trunks rolled his eyes. "I already promise you I won't send you to the nut house-"

"No! You gotta promise you'll help me save the world!"

The best friend's exchanged devious, excited looks before trying to hock a loogie into their palms again.

* * *

"Ugh, gross!" Bra punched his shoulder as they flew through the sky. They were cruising through clouds and enjoying the cool breezes interacting with their skin. "Trunks always tried that nasty oath with me! I'm so glad you guys grew out of that!"

Goten smirked while glancing over at her. Her hair and the sky were the same color. "We still exchange spit, just now it's with girls through their mouths."

"EW EW EW!" The heiress pretended to gag. "Look, whatever you do in your spare time is fine, just don't make me picture my brother making out with some poor girl! Yuck!"

The young man laughed genuinely. It wasn't until he began sharing his story with Bra that he realized how lucky he was to still have Trunks in his life after everything he put the poor guy through. He began to think about the drawings in the notebook, of the black-and-purple haired boy. It had been a week since the last time they fused...

"How much further is this island!?"

"About another hour."

"Seriously!?" Sure, Bra enjoyed the flight for the first thirty minutes, but now she was getting irritated. "It better be as amazing as you hype it up to be or I'll tell Daddy you kidnapped me."

Goten rolled his eyes for the nth time. The cute ones were always manipulative and evil as hell. He sarcastically replied, "It's everything you ever wanted and more. We're not going to Papaya Island for sightseeing, Bra. We're going so you can better understand my story."

The teen sighed, releasing condensation. She was actually hoping for a nice trip to a beautiful exotic island, but it was probably just going to be as boring as Monday mornings at school. "Can I start calling you Bardock?"

"No."

"Aw, c'mon! Pleeeeaaaaaaaaaasssseeeeee..."

Goten's eyes turned into near slits listening to her drag out the simple word. If she kept this annoying routine up, she'd have no choice but to say hi to Bardock.

* * *

Wearing dark sunglasses and one of Gohan's jackets that fit him like a dress, the identity of Goten was well hidden. He had made it to the West City Public Library safe and sound. He tipped his straw hat at the librarian, who didn't even make eye contact with him. The boy snickered to himself, knowing that he was one cool customer.

The only other cool customer in the joint had saved a table for the both of them. He was dressed similar to Goten, except his clothes were his own and not stole-me-downs.

"Did ya get the goods?"

"I got the goods."

The two nodded before turning the page of the first book Trunks had "borrowed" from his mother's library. It was everything about Saiyans and nothing about one named Bardock. The majority of it was just drawings of Trunks' dad shirtless for some reason.

"Trunks this is getting weird..."

"Agreed. Darn it, Mom!" The boy was blushing hard, fearing of what he'd see if he kept turning the pages. He tossed the book to the floor and pulled another one from the pile. He shook it twice in hopes that no nude photographs would fall from it. "Alright. This one's safe!"

Goten tilted his head to the side. He still wasn't the best reader on the rainbow and couldn't decipher what the cover said. "Uh, Trunks? What's this one about?"

"It's another one of Mom's research logs," Trunks opened the dusty book and squinted at the sloppy writing. "Oh... this is no good. It's about the time she went to space with Krillin and your brother... Oh, and there's my dad's name written all huge. Again."

The mischievous kids groaned in unison and shoved the book to the floor. It was hopeless! There was no information about Bardock, the planet called Vegeta, reincarnations involving a Saiyan named Bardock from a planet called Vegeta, or violent futuristic visions _anywhere_! Even if there were a few fortune telling books, they were all garbage full of theories!

"What did your dad say when you asked him, Trunks!?"

"All he said was that Bardock is a Saiyan name and that I should be focusing more on training for the tournament than helping you with your personal problems. Sorry dude."

Goten slammed his head onto the table, breaking his sunglasses. How was the poor child suppose to fight a seemingly undefeatable monster that probably doesn't even exist yet without having more information!? How was he suppose to fully become the Bardock within when he still didn't know much about the actual guy!?

"You little shit, I knew it!"

"AH!"

Trunks jumped when his friend threw his chair across the room, which gained a bunch of gasps from everyone in the library. Only the lavender hair boy knew that Goten was in a battle with Bardock, even though Trunks couldn't see the brute himself. The Capsule Corps heir picked up the leg of the now broken chair for a weapon. Goten on the other hand had already raised his little fists in the air to protect himself against the onslaught of a pissed off spirit.

"Just tell me where to swing at!"

"No, Trunks, you can't!" The boy didn't take his glare away from his grandfather whose chest was heaving. "Nothing can hurt this guy. He's irresistible."

"Invincible, dumbass!" Bardock growled and forcibly removed a thick textbook from the shelf to the right of him. He chucked it as hard as he could at the young warrior for going against his word. "Here I am training you and preparing you to save the world so you could die a good fucking person and you're running your mouth to this little fruitcake!" Book after book was being thrown, and each one was either destroyed by Goten or knocked out of the way by Trunks' bat. The whole scene caused the librarian to faint and others to call the cops on the juveniles.

"Well it's not my fault!" Goten roared surprisingly loud for the tiny body he had. He did a roundhouse to the encyclopedia that came lightning fast towards his head. "You act weird when I start asking you questions! I want to be just as strong and as funny as my grandpa but I don't know where to start!"

"Don't try to kiss my ass, kid. It doesn't work!" Bardock moved on from textbooks and began firing ki blasts from the palm of his hand. His target was the messy haired mini look alike and avoided killing the tag-along. He smirked noticing that the child's reflexes had increase immensely from the start of their training. "In your visions, that tournament happens before the pink bastard comes, right?"

Goten twisted his body to avoid being cooked. When they sequenced the pictures together from the notebook, it made the most sense. "Yeah..."

"The tournament is a week away."

"Uh huh..."

"... Holy shit kid just put two and two together before I strangle you."

The child's eyes suddenly glowed brighter than the lights Bardock just destroyed. If the tournament was a week away... "That means that... that thing is going to be here in a week!"

"Exactly." Bardock lowered his head to his sides. He motioned for Goten to follow him, knowing that every donut stuffing badge wearer in town was about to show up at the library. Either that, or a freak known as Saiyaman. "C'mon, kid! Get the led out!"

"Not without Trunks."

"What!?"

Goten placed a hand on his best friend's shoulder, who had finally dropped his weapon. Bardock was just lucky that the son of Vegeta didn't go Super Saiyan on his ass. "Not without Trunks. You _know_ the purple and black haired guy has something to do with him!"

Remembering his idiotic reasoning being that the kid had purple hair, Bardock groaned. He didn't have time to be a ghost babysitter for someone who most likely wouldn't hold his own weight in this. But Goten would be even more of a pain in the ass if the punk didn't join in on saving the world.

"Fine," The Saiyan warrior spoke through gritted teeth. "Let's. Go."

Goten, Trunks, and Bardock escaped the library right before the cops arrived. The odd three, who were more determined than ever to save the world and get everything back to normal, seemed to cause more bad than good wherever they went. At this rate, it was going to take a miracle to defeat the pink monster in Goten's visions.

* * *

"Wait a minute... _THIS_ is Papaya Island!?"

"Mmmmhmmm."

Bra clasped her hands together. She never knew that the island where all the Martial Arts Tournaments were held was called Papaya Island! "That is the cutest thing ever! Wow! This place hasn't changed a bit since I saw Daddy fighting back when I was little."

Goten glanced at the princess. "Eh, I dunno. You're still pretty little."

The teenager punched the young adult hard on the shoulder before linking arms with him. "Are you going to take me on a tour, _Bardock_?"

He mocked her under his breath, but humored her request. They walked in silence for awhile so Bra could enjoy the sound of the seagulls singing as they landed on the palm trees. There was a tightening in his chest when they approached a similar area.

"Wow. I didn't know that memory would make my eyes water."

Bra looked up at his face in concern, watching the tears form in the corners before Goten wiped it away with a smile. "What happened?" She whispered gently.

"This is the same exact spot I first met my father."


End file.
